Guwahati, June 26: Kamakhya temple atop Nilachal Hills here reopened its doors this morning, after four days, to a surge of devotees - thousands who were waiting in queues overnight and VVIP politicians with their entourage - and a bonanza of Rs 25 crore for its development.

The temple gates were closed on Wednesday morning and the Ambubachi Mela - eastern India's largest congregation of pilgrims - drew a whopping 25 lakh devotees this year, according to the Kamrup (metro) deputy commissioner's office.

Ambubachi is the celebration of goddess Kamakhya's annual menstruation during which the temple's sanctum sanctorum is closed to devotees.

Union petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who was here for a road show on small gas and oil fields, today announced an aid of Rs 25 crore for the development of the temple's infrastructure over the next couple of years.

State health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma mentioned in a tweet, "This fund would come from CSR projects of different oil companies."

Reacting to Pradhan's step, Kabindra Sarma, the president of Bordeuri Samaj that looks after the management of the temple, said, "The temple needs a facelift. Our committee's funds are enough to run the daily affairs of the temple only. We will sit with all the stakeholders for the proper utilisation of the funds."

Pradhan and Sarma, who were among the first to visit the temple when the gates opened at 6am, were accompanied by Union HRD minister Smriti Irani, Union sanitation and drinking water minister Ram Kripal Yadav, Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal and Assam and Nagaland governor P.B. Acharya.

Sonowal told reporters that the government would make efforts to develop the temple into a major tourist attraction.

The scorching heat made the progress of the five lakh pilgrims, from the foothill to the temple, about a 2.5km walk, an arduous task.

The Met office said the maximum temperature recorded during the day was 36 degrees Celsius but the "real feel" was more than 42 degrees Celsius.

The pilgrims were waiting for the temple doors to open from last night in queues that snaked up from the bottom to the hilltop.

"Several pilgrims fainted in the heat of the scorching sun. The volunteers and NGOs, who had set up free water stalls around the route, served us with water from time to time, but the elderly devotees could not take the heat," said Bhargav Dutta, one of the devotees who had come here from Kailasahar in Tripura.

In addition, 108, the emergency medical ambulance service in the city, had deputed eight vehicles on temple duty.

"We were informed by the volunteers whenever any person was in need of any medical attention. Our vehicles rushed to the spot and took them to the medical camps set up near the temple," said Aurkojyoti Saha, an employee of the ambulance service.