Ayodhya is expecting an unprecedented number of visiting devotees and tourists as the New Year begins after the end of the first year of the Ram Temple consecration ceremony on January 22. Faizabad and Ayodhya are now bracing up for the festival, as most of the hotels and lodges in the temple town have been occupied, leaving little chance for any more bookings.
In order to ensure that the increasing number of devotees visiting the Ram Temple got an opportunity to ‘darshan’, the Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust of the government has increased the timings and has put into strict crowd control measures. ‘‘We stand willing and able to prepare god devotees this New Year. All our rooms are pre-occupied till January 15,” said Ankit Mishra, a hotelier in the area.
Companies offering online booking services indicated relatively few rooms accessible through their websites as of Saturday morning. But even some hotels and lodges are now offering accommodation for as high as ₹10,000 for one night due to the high demand. It depicts the increased efficiency of Ayodhya as religious tourism centre, as it has been known since the temple’s re-opening this year.
Even as Chaitra (March- April) has customary importance for the initiation of the new Hindu Calendar, even the English New Year is gradually gaining spiritual orientation. Speaking with a local priest, Ramakant Tiwari, an estimate stated, “On the first of January, a number of devotees come to the religious site to bow down before Ram Lalla to seek the blessing to begin the New Year in a better way.”
Ayodhya has gained a charm and, at the same time, religious significance, and more and more tourists are planning their visit months ago. The town coasters and the temple authorities are coordinating and making arrangements to make this new year an appropriate devotional event.
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