Pilgrims have bumpy ride to Bhadradri
They faced hardships with traffic being diverted to remote villages
By : DC Correspondent
Update: 2015-07-24 07:11 GMT
Khammam: The pilgrims heading to Bhadrachalam to take a holy dip on the tenth day of Godavari Pushkaralu faced hardships with traffic being diverted to remote villages en route. Vehicles from and to Bhadrachalam have been diverted to the narrow and congested roads in rural areas like Paloncha, Burgumpahad and Kothagudem mandals in Telangana and Kukkunoor mandal in Andhra Pradesh.
A.K. Sankara Rao, a private employee in Hyderabad, said that they had a tough time travelling on the bad roads in the remote villages of Kukkunoor and Paloncha mandals.
“The roads in the villages had many potholes and trenches,” he said. Further, the pilgrims complained that the diversion led to an rise in both distance and time in reaching to the Pushkar ghats. The distance increased by 25 km compared to the normal route to Bhadrachalam. Some vehicles were diverted from Paloncha via KTPS, Pandurangapuram and Pinapaka.
Vehicles heading to Bhadrachalam were diverted at Kothagudem. Sitanagaram, Sangam, Nagaram and Danthelagudem under Paloncha and Kukkunoor mandals. The route of the vehicles proceeding to Bhadrachalam was also changed at Kothagudem. These vehicles will reach Paloncha by touching Gajulagudem and other habitations.
Bhadru Naik, a farmer from Nagaram, said, “We are being surprised by watching such massive number of vehicles to their habitations, which will be a sleepy one in normal times”. The villagers demanded the government to make repairs to these roads after Pushkaralu because these routes damaged fully with the plying of large number of vehicles. The version of police officials is that diversion being done to lessen the traffic flow on the main road. Pilgrims from rural areas are coming more on private vehicles than the RTC buses, a police official said.
70,000 pilgrims take holy dip at mothe:
The Pushkar ghat at Mothe under Burgumpahad mandal has become the favourite ghat to many. Not just VIPs, even common pilgrims have are also preferring to take bath here. On Thursday, about 70,000 pilgrims took a holy dip at Mothe.
G. Bhaskar, a resident of Ambarpet under Nandigama mandal in Krishna district, said, "I came to know about the Pushkar ghat at Mothe through one of my friends working in the media and so came here."
The Chandramouleeswara Swamy temple at the ghat is a special attraction for the pilgirms. As expected by Minister for roads and buildings T. Nageswara Rao, the pilgrim rush will be more in the last three days of Pushkaralu. On Thursday, more than 4.5 lakh pilgrims took holy dip at various ghats in the district.
PCC leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka and several TD MLAs took a dip at Bhadrachalam. Congress MLA from Palair and former minister R. Damodar Reddy and his brothers offered prayers at Lord Rama's temple on Thursday.