Mumbai: Siddhivinayak temple increases devotee capacity to 2,000

Even as the city fears a second wave of the pandemic, Siddhivinayak temple at Prabhadevi has increased its daily capacity of allowing devotees within two weeks of opening the temple to the public after being shut for almost eight months. The temple has now started giving out 2,000-odd QR codes online daily, whereas another 500 are given out offline. In the first week, the number of devotees allowed was just 1,000 per day. The temple is likely to increase this number further.

Siddhivinayak temple's management has set up an application where citizens who wish to visit the temple have to first take an appointment online - there is a time slot (of one hour), which is given for the visit and a QR code is generated. While entering the temple; one has to scan the QR code and only then, is the entry allowed. At the entry, use of sanitisers is compulsory, and going ahead, the security of the temple instructs the devotees to wash their hands and feet before entering the temple.

The authorities said that the increase was allowed as they realised there were few dead spots where not too many devotees were coming in. "And, after studying the current dead spots and gaps in the turnout, we will consider increasing the number of visitors further," said Aadesh Bandekar, the temple's trustee. He continued, "We have taken all the necessary safety precautions and are giving out entry only through application, that we have especially developed for the devotees and during the time of pandemic."

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