Varanasi, Mar 18 (IANS): More than five lakh devotees of Lord Shiva visited the Shri Kashi Vishwanath Dham temple on March 17, setting a record especially given that this is not a festival season.

Lakhs of devotees gather here for darshan during festivals in the month of Sawan and on Shivratri, but such a heavy footfall has never been seen before on a non-festival day.

Vishwa Bhushan Mishra, Chief Executive Officer of Shri Kashi Vishwanath Temple Trust, said that on March 17, a new record of the highest daily number of visitors on a normal day was established.

“A total of 5,03,024 visitors visited the temple on this day. Before the inauguration of the temple corridor, on normal days, the number of devotees used to be around 20 to 30 thousand, whereas after the inauguration, the number of devotees has increased to 1.5 lakh to 2 lakh,” he said.

According to an official release, after the transformation of the Kashi Vishwanath temple complex from about three thousand square feet to a huge area of about five lakh square feet, devotees are flocking to the Dham for darshan.

Pradeep Rai, Secretary, Travel Agent Association of India (TAAI), Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, said that tourists are getting maximum interest for the two-way circuit of Ayodhya and Kashi.

In both religious cities, maximum number of tourists are coming during weekends.