Preparations for Teej festival complete: PADT

By A Staff Reporter, Kathmandu, Sept. 16: Teej, the biggest Hindu festival of women, is being celebrated across the nation on Monday. 

To manage the crowd of women devotees at the Pashupatinath Temple, the Pashupati Area Development Trust (PADT) has almost completed preparations for the Teej festival. 

Organising a press meeting on Friday on the premises of Pashupatinath Temple, the PADT 

informed that it would provide better facilities and manage the crowds during the festival. 

The officials of the PADT stated that it was ready to welcome thousands of devotees on the day of Teej. 

Police personnel will be mobilised to manage the crowd of devotees and provide security to them. 

Security personnel from the Nepal police, Armed Police Force, other security organs and volunteers will be mobilised at the Pashupati area on the day, it said. 

All four gates of the temple will open from 3 a.m. to late evening except during the two regular rituals--Shreeyanta pooja and Mahabhog (secret worship). 

The northern, southern and eastern gates shall be opened for entrance and the western gate shall be used for exit. Visitors with disabilities and senior citizens shall enter through any gate, said the PADT.   

Around 2,000 security personnel are going to be deployed on the day. 

Nepal Telecom and Ncell will set up BTS VAN to provide mobile service for visitors during the day to ensure easy transmission and reception of mobile services in the over-crowded area. 

The PADT has made arrangements for people to offer worship to Lord Shiva at Pashupatinath making four separate lines from different places around the temple. 

 PADT has urged the devotees to visit the site wearing polite dress, without wearing valuable ornaments and not to bring small children. 

Gauri Shankar Parajuli, officiating chief of the Culture Preservation Division of PADT, said, "We have asked to provide more women police personnel to deploy them in the core 

area of Pashupatinath Temple and other areas.