Holiday crowd throngs Srisailam, traffic goes haywire

KURNOOL: Hyderabad-Srisailam road between Domalapenta and Srisaialm was chock-a-block on Sunday as holiday crowds thronged the temple town. The Srisailam dam opening 10 gates and water gushing through the spillway provided a beautiful backdrop for selfie lovers to click photos on their mobile phones.

Srinivas, a visitor, said it took him four hours to move from Domalapenta to Sunnipenta, a distance of four kilometres, as vehicles moved bumper to bumper. Vijayakumar, another visitor from Hyderabad, said it took him six hours to reach the temple from Domalapenta. The police said vehicles were moving at a snail's pace as they found no way to negotiate the heavy flow of traffic. Srisailam One Town sub inspector Naveen said the traffic was heavy on Sunday due to holiday visitors. “But we found no stranding of vehicles as they moved slowly on the road,” he said.

The Bhramaramba Mallikarjuna Swamy temple authorities said, "It is like another Shivarathri day on Sunday, as at least 50,000 visitors entered the temple for darshan. The rush could be managed as we arranged three queue lines. Since we are not offering the Sparsh darshan of Lord Shiva, the crowds were in constant ambulation. Otherwise, it could have been a difficult task.”

“This is one of the heaviest rushes we have witnessed at the temple after lifting of lockdown,” said temple executive officer K.S. Rama Rao.

Most of the visitors were from the Hyderabad area. The visitors, besides enjoying the gushing of water as 5,25,000 cusecs of water were discharged through 10 gates, were also seen visiting other sites of interest. They visited Sikhareshwara temple, Sakshi Ganapathy, Paladhara-Panchadhara, Hatakeswaram and Kailasa Dwaram.

Rukma Reddy, another visitor to Srisailam, said there were no police personnel to regulate the traffic jam. He said at Lingala Gattu, fish sellers blocked the road and it created much of the traffic problem on Sunday.