A day after pilgrims complained of having to trek long distances in hot weather to reach the pushkar ghat, the Guntur police and the RTC arranged mini buses to bring pilgrims and their families directly to the pushkar ghat.
The original plan was to have the visitors park their vehicles at parking places in Undavalli and get them into mini buses which would drop them at Undavalli Skew Bridge Centre. Pilgrims would then have to walk all the way to the ghat, a distance of 1.4 km.
With the pilgrims being forced to bear the brunt of the heat, the police changed the plan and decided to bring pilgrims directly to the ghats through mini buses.
Inspector General of Police, South Coastal Range, N. Sanjay, Superintendent of Police and Guntur Urban, Sarva Shresth Tripathi oversaw the arrangements. Mr. Sanjay along with special officer, Project Director, Dwama, Puli Srinivasulu personally travelled in all the routes and ensured that pilgrims were ferried to the ghats directly.
The police who have faced flak for keeping the Prakasam Barrage out of bounds for commuters and pedestrians on Friday, opened the way on Saturday bringing much relief to daily commuters and local vendors. Pilgrims were also relieved as they could go to Vijayawada directly.
Pilgrim inflow risesDay Two of Krishna Pushkaram witnessed a steady increase in the number of pilgrims. Many families from Hyderabad and other cities made use of the long weekend to visit the ghats and the tourist places in Guntur and Vijayawada. The Dhyana Buddha ghat at Dharanikota and Seethanagaram Ghat at Tadepalli witnessed a steady increase in crowds.
Member of Parliament Galla Jayadev visited the ghat at Seethanagaram.
