With 8,000 lockers to keep cellphones and shoes, seven automatic luggage X-ray scanners, aarti timings streamlined, and an extensive entry-exit plan in place, the darshan time at the Ram Mandir was reduced to about 30 minutes on the second day of the temple’s inauguration Wednesday, a day after a sea of people reached the site to pay their obeisance to the Ram idol. The Ram temple Trust said that 2.5 lakh people visited the temple on Wednesday — around 5 lakh people had visited the temple on the first day. “Most of the things have been streamlined. We are cooperating with the administration to put a proper system for the visitors in place. We have decided that the timing of darshan will be from 6 am to 10 pm. The curtains before the Ram idol will be brought down for about 15 minutes each, two times a day,” Anil Mishra, a member of the Trust, told The Indian Express. He said the temple got Rs 3.17 crore in donations on Tuesday. DG (Law & Order) Prashant Kumar, who reached the temple premises at the start of the darshan around 6 am along with Principal Secretary (Home) Sanjay Prasad, said, “Crowd control and better traffic management are the two things that we have ensured. The arrangements were made overnight, along with the Trust.” On Wednesday, when the temple opened at 6 am, and there were over 50,000 pilgrims waiting in line since 2:30 am. By 11 am, the long queues outside the Ram Janma Bhoomi Path melted away and the only queue left was inside the temple premises. The pilgrims entering from the Ram Janmabhoomi Path were first stopped after 400 metres and were directed towards the facility centre where people were frisked and their bags and other belongings put through automatic X-ray luggage machines. From there, the pilgrims entered another facility centre, which is under construction. There are 8,000 lockers for the pilgrims to keep their belongings such as cellphones, e-gadgets and keys, and shoes. However, there is no place for big bags. From there, the pilgrims head further towards the temple after a security check and frisking. As no one is allowed to make any offerings inside the temple, the darshan is smooth and quick. On the way to the exit, there are donation counters where pilgrims are given “prasad” — flavoured sugar balls — in paper bags. The pilgrims exit from the backside of the premises, where the belongings kept in a locker are brought to them on showing the key. The exit gate is linked to the exit of the “makeshift temple” and back to the Ram Path, where three rows have been formed for people to come out. Meanwhile, the construction of the temple, which was stopped on January 20, has not resumed.
