Over one lakh devotees are expected to have darsan of Lord Sri Suryanarayana Swamy at Arasavalli, Srikakulam district on January 26 on the auspicious occasion of Ratha Saptami. More devotees are likely to throng temple as Republic Day is a holiday and preceding day is a Sunday.
The district administration is making elaborate arrangements to ensure a hassle-free darshan as it assessed arrival of more number of people from States like Odisha, West Bengal, and Telangana apart from North Andhra region. A high-level meeting was held on Monday to ensure better coordination among the departments including Endowments, Revenue, Police and APSRTC.
Srikakulam MLA Gunda Lakshmi Devi, Srikakulam Revenue Divisional Officer B. Dayanithi, Assistant Commissioner of Endowments V. Shyamalamba, temple Executive Officer R. Pushpanatham, Srikakulam DSP C. Srinivasa Rao and others discussed the arrangements.
According to them, the sale of tickets would be in queue lines only as it was decided to avoid duplication of ticket with their sale in advance. ‘Ksheerabhiskhem’ would be performed from 1 a.m. to 5 p.m. The tickets each priced at Rs. 216 would be sold from 12 noon for devotees who wanted to participate in ‘Ksheerabhisekham’.
Two persons would be allowed on each ticket. Separate counters would be set up for sale of Rs.100 tickets. The donor passholders could go to the temple from 4 a.m. onwards.
A separate queue line was being created from Pushakarani for free darsan.
A team of officials would be posted at VIP gate to identify public representatives, senior officials, judges and others to ensure darsan in line with the protocol. APSRTC has agreed to operate 50 buses locally and allocate 50 buses for passengers coming from various places including Visakhapatnam and Vizianagaram districts.
Cultural events
Cultural events would include musical concert by Bandaru Chittibabu, G. Anand, B.A. Narayana and Mandapaka Sarada in the evening.
