Guwahati, June 26: The four-day Ambubachi mela at the Kamakhya temple atop Nilachal hill here witnessed a record turnout this year.
"Nearly 35 lakh people visited this year and we hope more people will visit next year when we will be able to construct another road to reach the temple. Our effort is to promote Kamakhya temple as one of the major centres of religious tourism in the country and we will take whatever measure is required for the same," Assam tourism minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said after performing puja in the temple this morning.
Sarma, Assam governor Banwarilal Purohit, chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal, former chief minister Tarun Gogoi and PCC president Ripun Bora were among the first who paid obeisance to the goddess at the temple, which opened its doors for worship after four days.
Ambubachi mela last year had reported more than 10 lakh visitors, including tantrics, sadhus and tourists. The spike in inflow of visitors this year is attributed to the strong publicity campaign launched by the Assam Tourism Development Corporation, including invitation to major temples in the country such as Juna Akhara of Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh and Priyakant Ju Mandir of Vrindaban in Uttar Pradesh.
This year's mela at the Kamakhya temple, one of the 51 shaktipeeths in the country, began on June 22. The temple doors are kept closed as the goddess is believed to be in her annual menstrual cycle during the four days. The devotees converge outside the temple and pray, chant mantras and sing religious songs before the temple doors are opened to them.
Apart from the 3.2km motorable road, there are three staircaes that the devotees can climb to reach Kamakhya and several other ancient temples on Nilachal hill.
"I pray to Goddess Kamakhya to bless us all so that we can fight the evil forces and live well. Kamakhya is an important spiritual centre and I hope we will be able to promote this further as a tourist attraction," Sonowal said.
"We are conducting a survey on the facilities provided to the visitors this year and we will take further necessary steps based on the feedback we receive from those who visited the temple this year," deputy commissioner, Kamrup (metro) M. Angamuthu said.
The tourism department had earlier said they were following the model of the Vaishno Devi temple in Jammu and Kashmir to put the Kamakhya temple on the country's religious tourism map.
The department is planning a new road from Pandu on the western side of the Nilachal hills to encourage visitors to reach the temple on foot similar to Vaishno Devi temple.
Thousand of devotees this year took the foot route to reach the temple following an appeal for the same by the organiser.
