9 L Hindu pilgrims expected for pushkarams on each day this year at ancient Amaravati.

Angesh Rao | HENB | Guntur | July 6, 2016::  The Guntur District collector Kantilal Dande has directed the officials to complete works related to Krishna Pushkarams by July 31, as the mega fete ‘Amaravati’ is scheduled to be held from August 12 to 23.

During a meeting here on Tuesday, the collector said that the government allocated Rs 500 crore for organising the pushkarams. As many as 80 bathing ghats will come up in the district and the officials are expecting a turnout of 9 lakh pilgrims every day, during the 12-day event.

Pushkaram is an Indian festival dedicated to worshiping of rivers. It is also known as Pushkaralu in Telugu. In Telugu-speaking states, Pushkaralu is celebrated across Godavari, Krishna, Pranhita, and Penna rivers.

Krishna Pushkaralu is a festival of River Krishna which normally occurs once in 12 years. The Pushkaralu is observed for a period of 12 days from the time of entry of Jupiter into Virgo (Kanya rasi).

Amaravati is the riverfront capital city of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.It is located on the southern banks of the Krishna river in Guntur district, within the Andhra Pradesh Capital Region. The foundation stone for the planned city was laid on 22 October 2015, at Uddandarayunipalem area by the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi. The cities of Guntur and Vijayawada are the major nearby cities to the state capital.

Each bathing ghat will be constructed in a length of 1.3 km at the ancient Amaravati, where one of the pancharamas, Amara Lingeswara Swamy Temple located on the banks of river Krishna. “As part of ensuring free flow of traffic, we allocated `40 crore to the Guntur Municipal Corporation for road widening works, `20 crore and `5 crore each to Mangalagiri and Repalle municipalities respectively,” he added and told the officials to arrange 1,000 temporary toilets for the convenience of the pilgrims.

Joint collector Ch Sridhar, joint collector-II M Venkateswara Rao and Guntur municipal commissioner S Nagalakshmi were present.

Another prominent Pushkaralu venue Vijayawada is located on the banks of the Krishna River. Vijayawada is also  famous for Krishna Pushkaralu. The Krishna Pushkaralu will be held as the specifib schedule from August 12th to 23rd. During the celebrations, devotees will take a dip in the sacred Krishna River to wash away their papa (sins) to attain moksha (spiritual liberation).