By IANS,
Ahmedabad : Colourful lights and flags dotted the way to the Ambaji temple in Gujarat’s Banaskantha district as over 100,000 devotees trekked to the shrine for an ongoing five-day religious fair.
All roads leading to the temple, nearly 200 km from here, saw a flood of people chanting praises of goddess Amba, the reigning deity.
According to estimates, over 100 devotees reached the temple town on the first day of the Bhadarvi poonam mela Thursday.
“We are expecting about 2.5 million pilgrims to take part in the religious congregation,” said temple administrator P.K. Jadeja.
Many pilgrims have trekked from places across the state on foot, dancing and singing devotional songs.
“We started our journey from Radasan in Mehsana district on Wednesday evening and reached the temple Thursday afternoon to personally invite Ma Ambe calling join us in the coming Navaratri season and play garba (traditional dance) with us,” said Karsanbhai, a devotee.
“We always come personally to invite the goddess. She comes and stays with us all the nine days during Navaratri,” said 62-year-old Santokben, who has come with a group from Pilucha in Mehsana.
“We are leaving no stone unturned to make the Bhadarvi poonam mela a memorable one,” said District Collector R.J. Patel, who is also the ex officio chairman of the Ambaji Temple Trust.
Voluntary organisations from Mumbai, Surat, Ahmedabad and Vadodara and have set up camps and stalls to provide free food and refreshments to pilgrims on the the 11-km-long Trishulia Ghat leading to the shrine.
The state transport service is running 1,500 extra buses for the fair, officials said.
With state government help, the Ambaji temple trust and the district administration have put up massive waterproof tents and temporary resting facilities at 33 different locations in and around Ambaji.
Cultural programmes would be held every evening at the nearby Old College ground.
Security has also been tightened for the festival, with dog squads, Special Operation Group commandos and paramilitary personnel on stand-by. Besides, 25 CCTV cameras have been installed to monitor the activities of visitors within and outside the temple premises.
Around 7,000 policemen are on extra duty and rest houses and hotels in and around the town have been checked during the last fortnight, officials said.