The Kashi Vishwanath temple in Varanasi will remain open for 36 hours after the ‘Mangal aarti’ on Maha Shivratri on March 8.The temple authorities expect over 10 lakh devotees to visit the temple on the festival and hence it has been decided to keep the sanctum sanctorum open for ‘darshan’. The temple administration has also started making arrangements for crowd regulation. The temple’s chief executive officer, Vishwa Bhushan Mishra, said, “Devotees will enter temple premises in four queues and get Jharokha Darshan (offering prayer by seeing deity from outside of Garbha Griha) till 11 a.m on March 9. No Sparsh-Darshan (offering prayer by touching Shivling) arrangements will be available in this period.
”No ticketed or VIP darshan facility will be allowed on this day and the movement of queues will not be disturbed or stopped for VIP darshan, he said. Following the renovation of Kashi Vishwanath Dham and its opening by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on December 13, 2021 the temple has continued to set a record of devotees on days like New Year, Maha Shivaratri and Shravan Mondays. On Maha Shivaratri in 2023, around 6.88 lakh devotees offered prayers at the temple and over seven lakhs entered the temple on Mondays in the Shravan month in 2022 and 2023.The officials are expecting further increase in the footfall of pilgrims on the coming festival of Maha Shivaratri.