Coronavirus lockdown | Durga temple to open to devotees from June 10

Trial run for two days from today

Safety first: A priest using sanitiser before entering the temple.

The Kanaka Durga temple in Andhra Pradesh’s Vijayawada will be thrown open to devotees from June 10 after a gap of almost two months following relaxation in COVID-19 lockdown norms.

Ahead of it, Sri Durga Malleswara Swamyvarla Devasthanam will undertake a trial run by allowing its employees to have darshan of the presiding deity for two days from Monday. The aim is to plug loopholes, if any, in the measures put in place to check the spread of virus.

Darshan timings

Addressing the media here on Sunday, temple trust board chairman Pyla Somi Naidu and Executive Officer M.V. Suresh Babu said there would be no ‘antaralaya darshan’. Also, the devotees would not be allowed to prepare ‘pongal’ and offer the same to the presiding deity.

The darshan timings would be from 6 a.m. to 11.30 a.m. and from 12.30 p.m. to 5 p.m., they said, and added that priests would neither offer ‘satari’ or ‘theertham’ to devotees. “Arrangements have been made to facilitate darshan for 250 people per hour in each queue,” they said.