Ram Lalla darshan: Massive crowds continue to throng temple

Devotees continue to flock to Uttar Pradesh's Ayodhya in large numbers two days after the ‘pran pratishtha’ ceremony of Ram Lalla. Visuals from outside the temple show a huge crowd braving the cold winter morning to have a ‘darshan’ of Lord Ram.

Around 1,000 Rapid Action Force (RAF) personnel have been deployed in and around the temple complex to ensure devotees get their turn to have a ‘darshan’.

Non-stop crowd

Praveen Kumar, inspector-general of police, Ayodhya, said people are gathering in the temple town non-stop.

"The crowd is nonstop, but preparations are complete. We appeal to the old and Divyang people to schedule their visit after two weeks. I want to appeal to the people that there's no need to hurry for Darshan. The temple will be opened for everyone with better preparations," the senior police official said.

Special additional deputy-general of police (law and order) Prashant Kumar said the queue system to manage crowds has been improved. Dedicated channels for people have been made.

"The Principal Secretary Home and I are present here to oversee the management. 'Darshan' is going on smoothly now. We have improved the queue system for crowd management," Kumar said.

Vijay Kumar, director-general of police, Uttar Pradesh, earlier said that a sufficient number of security personnel have been deployed to manage the crowd.

Unprecedented number of devotees on Day 1

The Ram temple was thrown open to the public on Tuesday after the grand consecration ceremony of Lord Ram on January 22. A massive crowd started to gather around the temple since 3 am to have a darshan of the new Ram Lalla idol on the first morning after the consecration ceremony.

Late on Monday, a large number of devotees, both locals and visitors from other states, gathered near the main gateway along the Ram Path leading to the temple complex, seeking entry to the mandir premises.

As a large crowd built up near the ceremonial gateway – decked up for the consecration ceremony – police told the devotees that the temple would open to the public from Tuesday.

Darshan and aarti timings

For devotees seeking darshan of Lord Ram Lalla, the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra website has provided specific time slots – morning slot from 7 am to 11:30 am and afternoon slot from 2 pm to 7 pm.

‘Aarti’ timings include jagran/shringar at 6:30 am and sandhya aarti at 7:30 pm. One can obtain passes for the 'aarti' both offline and online. The offline passes are available at the camp office at Shri Ram Janmbhoomi and require valid government identity proof.