Athi Varadhar: 90 small buses being run for devotees

Radhakrishnan inspected the temporary bus terminus located at Orikkai, Muthialpet, Anjinayar temple, Olimugamad Pettai and Arulmigu Varadaraja Perumal temple and also interacted with the public on the facilities. 

An official release said that Radhakrishnan inspected the bus terminus following the Chief Minister’s direction to provide adequate facilities for the devotees of the Athi Varadhar. “Government transport corporation has been operating additional bus services to help facilitate the transportation of the devotees visiting in large numbers to have a darshan of Athi Varadhar whose idol is taken out of the vault of temple tank once in 40 years,” he said, adding that Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation Villupuram has been operating 861 trips from 14 places including Chennai, Tambaram, Arcot, Poonamallee, Chengalpattu and Arani. He said that the number of trips has been increased by 265 from August 1 and 87 trips from August 6. “A total of 1,213 trips being made to Kancheepuram with 70,000 people using the services,” he said. 

“We are operating 70 small buses from the five termini to facilitate the devotees visit to Athi Varadhar. Besides, 20 small buses are being operated to connect temporary terminus with Kancheepuram main terminus,” he said, adding that the temporary bus terminus has passenger amenities including drinking water, toilet and security.

Till now, over 75 lakh devotees have visited the temple, with their numbers surging by the day. The HR&CE Department and the district administration had initially estimated that around 20-25 lakh devotees would visit the temple during the festival, that began on July 1. With August 16 would be the last day of darshan, many people expected to visit the temple in the last few days. On August 17, the idol will be placed back in its vault inside the Ananthasaras tank.