Thousands of visitors thronged the Beach Road here on the last day of Visakha Utsav on Sunday. There seemed to be something for every one to chill out with multiple events organised as part of the festival.
The power glider was fun for the adventure-loving, replicas of temples was a great draw for those with a spiritual bent of mind, the classical, folk and tribal dances and traditional arts a treat for those with taste for culture while the flower show caught the fancy of those who wished to see nature in bloom. The replicas of various temples put up at Ramakrishna Beach saw a long line of devotees in the evening. Sri Varaha Lakshmi Nrusimha Swamy temple of Simhachalam, Sri Kanaka Mahalakshmi temple of Burujupeta in Old Town, Anakapalle Nookambika temple and the popular Sampath Vinayagar temple were some of the replicas on display. Venkatesh of P.M. Palem was pleased at the arrangements. “Having darshan is not taking much time and ‘prasadam’ is offered,” he said.
The power glider was a big hit with a number of visitors registering their names for the ride. They did not seem to mind though the operator was charging Rs.2,000 for the six-minute short ride from the beach opposite Hawa Mahal to RK Beach, less than 2 km away.
The operator, who had enrolled 50 names on Sunday, could take only around half-a-dozen persons in view of the crowd on the beach and the balloon, used to attained the desired thrust for the lift off from the ground falling often. The crowd on the beach came in the way and there was a risk of accident.
“Even senior citizens were enjoying the ride. Though the operator was promising that the ride would be for six minutes, he was returning in less than five minutes,” said Ch. Srinivasa Rao of Madhuranagar.
The Flower Show was a big draw on the concluding also. The queues stretched up to the Main Road, about half-a-kilometre away. People captured pictures of the beautiful flowers, vegetable carvings and theme-based flower arrangements on their mobile phones.
GVMC set up kiosks along the Beach Road to supply drinking water to people.
Ministers Ganta Srinivasa Rao, R. Kishore Babu, Palle Raghunadha Reddy, P. Pulla Rao, Kamineni Srinivasa Rao and Puducherry Minister Malladi Krishna Rao, who participated in the valedictory presnted the Visakha Utsav Puraskar to Kuchipudi dancer and actor Manju Bhargavi.
