10-07-2025
Sea of devotees have hassle-free ‘Giri Pradakshina'
Visakhapatnam: The grand annual festival of Lord Sri Varaha Lakshmi Narasimha of Simhachalam Devasthanam 'Giri Pradakshina' commenced in Visakhapatnam in the early hours of Wednesday.
Devotees arrived at Tholipavancha from 5 am and started their trek by breaking a coconut at the foothill of Simhachalam.
According to the muhurtham, the Devasthanam commenced the Giri Pradakshina at 2 pm by pulling the 'pushparatham' of the presiding deity the Tholipavancha.
The pushparatham was flagged off by the hereditary trustee of the temple, Pusapati Ashok Gajapathi Raju and MLAs Ganta Srinivasa Rao and PGVR Naidu.
For the convenience of devotees, vehicles are being restricted from Gopalapatnam petrol bunk junction to Ghosala junction till Thursday evening. The devotees who commenced their trek had to reach the Ghosala. From there, they had to reach the Tholipavancha by trekking. Similarly, heavy vehicles were not allowed in the city limits.
Every year, the city witnesses mild showers and the weather used to be pleasant for the trekkers. However, this time, the temperature soared till afternoon on the Giri Pradakshina day. As a result, those who were on a trek without footwear faced inconvenience.
As part of the annual festival, queue lines, shamiyanas and tents used to be facilitated near the Tholipavancha so that devotees could commence their trek, breaking a coconut comfortably. However, with the tents getting collapsed while erecting, the temple officials removed them. With this, the devotees experienced inconvenience due to unfavourable weather conditions.
Following diversions, a number of junctions, including BRTS road, Vepagunta, Hanumanthawaka, Gopalapatnam, Pendurthi, witnessed heavy traffic congestions.
For the first time, the district officials utilised an Artificial Intelligence-based facial recognition technology system to record an accurate number of devotees taking part in the Giri Pradakshina. Special arrangement was made to record the event near Simhachalam and the AI kept recording each second.
Serving the devotees in various ways all along the trek, several NGO representatives pitched in setting up stalls and reaching out to the devotees, providing them, medicines, water, refreshments, etc.
Volunteers of Sri Sathya SaiSeva organisations, including Simhachalam Samithi, Madhavadh Samithi, did yeoman's service to the devotees circumambulating 32-km-long trek. As part of the service activity, the volunteers offered foot massages to the devotees using herbal oil. Providing relief to the devotees, their service was well appreciated by the pilgrims. In addition to the foot massage, the volunteers served tiffins and refreshments to the devotees at various locations.
With complete coordination of endowments, district administration, police, GVMC officials, the festival was organised in a hassle-free manner.
