Ambaji/Ahmedabad

The actual counting of visitors footfalls to the world famous Ambaji temple during seven day long Bhadarvi Poonam Mela ( fair), which began today amid tight security, is being done for the first time with the help of the state of the art web based cloud computing technology.

Shri Arasuri Ambaji Mata Devasthan Trust (SAAMDT), the body that looks after the management of the temple, one of the 51 shaktipeeths (divine power-centres) of mother goddess where her heart is believed to have fallen according to Hindu mythology, has also started a unique helpline number for the pilgrims this time around. It has also improved the web cast of the fair and virtual darshan including aaratis.

Media Convener of the trust, Ashish Raval today said that for the counting of the footfalls a total of six cloud computing based web page application equipment have been installed at the three entrance routes (two at each) of the fair. ‘This equipment installed at the three entry points at Data road, Khedbramha road and Mansarovar road would count the footfalls. Not only this but the data provided by them would even enable us to analyze the crowd behaviour at different times and would be very fruitful in the mela management in future,’ he said.

Mr. Raval also said that as another first for this week long fair believed to be attended by 25 to 30 lakh devotees from all over the country and even abroad, every year, the trust has started a unique helpline number for the visitors. ‘It is however limited to the BSNL, Vodafone and Airtel subscribers owing to technical reasons. All such subscribers will receive a welcome message as soon as they approach the mela area. The message would contain an all purpose helpline number for them, he said.

‘We have also developed our web cast from the temple which was started last year,’ he said.

18 committees have been formed by the Banaskantha district administration in co-ordination with the trust to take care of the mela management. Over 5000 policemen have been deployed to prevent any untoward incident during the mela which traditionally begins on the ninth day of Bhadarva month of the Gujarati calender and culminates on Poonam or full moon day of the same month. The mela area spread over a radial distance of around 3 km from the shrine is being monitored through 118 cctv cameras.

Meanwhile, the gold coating of the temple mast is also on. Over 65 kg of gold has been used for the purpose so far.

The temple town of Ambaji is situated at a distance of approximately 65 km from Palanpur,the headquarter town of Banaskantha district, 45 km from Mount Abu and 20 km from Abu Road in neighbouring Rajasthan and 185 km from Ahmedabad.

– DeshGujarat