Durga Temple Gears Up With Tech Upgrades, Crowd Control Steps

Vijayawada: Vijayawada city police commissioner SV Rajasekhar Babu held a coordination meeting with Sri Durga Malleswara Swamy Devasthanam officials and senior police officers on Saturday to review preparations for Bhavani Deeksha renunciation rituals scheduled to be held from December 11 to 15 at the Kanaka Durga temple.

The commissioner discussed crowd management measures, including installing pedestrian footbridges at key locations to ensure devotees merge more neatly in queues. It also reviewed traffic and safety regulations to avoid traffic congestion near queue lines, bathing places, prasadam stalls and temple hill during Giri Pradakshina.

Rajasekhar Babu instructed the authorities to provide special facilities for elderly and differently-abled devotees and underlined coordination between departments to ensure a hassle-free experience for pilgrims.

It also reviewed the functioning of the Bhavani Deeksha mobile app introduced last year and directed the temple IT officials to upgrade the app with features such as darshan schedules, ritual details, online prasadam booking, parking information, medical points, drinking water facilities and route maps.

The upgraded app will act as a one-stop guide for devotees, easing congestion and improving accessibility. More than one lakh devotees from Andhra Pradesh and neighboring states are expected to participate in the rituals, which culminate with Maha Poornahuti on December 15.

DCP Krishna Kant Patil, temple EO VK Seena Nayak, ADC G. Ramakrishna, ACP Durga Rao, Inspector Guru Prakash and temple engineering and IT officials attended the meeting.