Dasara navaratri celebrations peak in Visakhapatnam

People at the boat ride entrance near the Visakhapatnam Port Venkateswara Swamy Temple to reach the Sagar Durga Temple on the Yarada Hills in Visakhapatnam on Sunday.
| Photo Credit: V RAJU

The city took on a festive look from Sunday as Navaratri celebrations peaked with religious fervour. Various communities are gearing up to celebrate the festival in traditional manner. The ‘Ayudha Puja’, ‘Chandi Homam’ and ‘Bhavani Diksha’ are part of the festivities.

Devotees riding boats to reach the Yarada Hills for darshan of Goddess Durga at the Sagar Durga Temple on the Yarada Hills in Visakhapatnam on Sunday.
| Photo Credit:
V RAJU

Citizens have been engrossed in the excitement of festival and holidays. Beaches, shopping malls, cinema halls and tourist destinations in and around Visakhapatnam and Araku have been abuzz with activity from Saturday as people flock to their favourite hangout spots to spend some time with their loved ones.

Meanwhile, devotees flocked to temples in the city to seek the blessings of Goddess Durga. Thousands of devotees, especially women, dressed in traditional attire waited in queues at the temples since dawn to seek the blessings of the Goddess.

Since the beginning of the Sarannavaratri festival, devotees have boarded the boats, specially launched at the Visakhapatnam port area, to reach the Yarada Hills for darshan of Goddess Durga at the Sagar Durga Temple on the Yarada Hills in the city limits.

“Especially on this Sunday, we saw a rush of devotees. We ran two boats from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.,” Srinivasa Rao, a boat operator, told The Hindu.

Officials have opened the boat facility for devotees to reach the temple along the two-kilometre sea route instead of the road that covers at least 30 kilometres from the city point at Dwarakanagar bus station. The boat services will be available till Vijaya Dasami (Dasara), and on Sunday, devotees lined up in front of the boat ride entrance near Venkateswara Swamy Temple on the port area.

On the other hand, RTC and Railway officials said that the number of passengers in buses and trains was less compared to Saturday.

“We did not see huge rush at our bus station in Dwarkanagar on Sunday as passengers had already left the city on Saturday. There will be congestion from Tuesday (October 24) evening,” APSRTC Deputy Chief Traffic Manager G. Satyanarayana said.