Arrangements in place for Gunadala Mary Matha fete
VIJAYAWADA: The beautiful cloth canopy arranged at the Bishop Grassi High School grounds welcomes the pilgrims from across the state for the three-day annual Mary Matha festival scheduled to be held from Feb 9 at Gunadala.
The Mary Matha shrine is decked up for the three-day festival and works like sprucing up the shrine and grotto on the hillock, widening of the pathway leading to the grotto, putting up barricades from the shrine to the hillock and carrying out repairs to the road between the grotto and the holy cross atop the hillock, have been completed.
Addressing a press conference at the Social Service Centre here, Mary Matha Shrine rector M Chinnappa said elaborate arrangements have been made for the convenience of pilgrims and Holy Mass will be celebrated on all the three days of the festival.
'More than 10 lakh devotees are expected to participate in the festival and offer prayers and the number is likely to increase on Feb 10, which is considered an auspicious day. We are making all efforts to provide better facilities including accommodation to pilgrims coming from distant places,' he said.
'Nearly 150 NSS volunteers and 600 police personnel will will be deployed to ensure smooth smooth conduct of the festival. Water sachets will be distributed to pilgrims free of cost throughout the festival. Medical camps will be arranged at five places in the area with the support of VMC,' said M Prasad, ED of Social Service Centre.
He said APSRTC would run special buses during the festival and announce its schedule soon. The South Central Railway (SCR)is planning halts for passenger trains at Ramavarappadu station during the festival days. It will also run special trains from Srikakulam and Rayalaseema apart from openeing special ticket counters at Ramavarappadu station and Vijayawada station, he added.
News Posted: 6 February, 2015
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