AYODHYA: For about a month, a huge number of devotees have been abandoning their shoes and sandals at the entry gate of Ram temple in Ayodhya due to a change in the exit plan. The municipal corporation has already removed nearly 30 trollies of shoes and sandals.
Earlier, pilgrims would leave their shoes at gate number 1 and wear them again from the same spot after completing a circular route of roughly half a kilometre. However, due to increase in crowd density, the administration redirected exits through gate number 3 and other gates. To get back their footwears from the entry point, the pilgrims now need to walk on the Rampath for about 5-6 kilometres, due to which they are now choosing to abandon their shoes and proceed barefoot to their vehicles or lodgings.
The municipal corporation is daily removing the piles of these abandoned footwear using JCB machines and loading them on trollies.
Anil Mishra, a trustee of the Ram temple trust, said, “Changes have been made in the arrangements for the past 30 days to ensure that the unexpected crowd of devotees can have easy access to the darshan without chaos.”
Over 1.25 crore devotees visited the Ram temple in Ayodhya during 45 days of Maha Kumbh. The influx of devotees began on Makar Sankranti and continued unabated until Maha Shivratri. From January 26 onwards, on average, around 10 to 12 lakh devotees thronged the city, not only to seek spiritual solace but also to experience Ayodhya’s evolving tourism landscape.
“For the first time ever, the doors of Ram Lalla’s temple remained open until 1 am to accommodate the continuous flow of devotees eager for darshan,” Mishra said.
