Dev Deepawali: Witness ‘Ganga Avtaran’ tales, lord Shiva hymns in 3D this year

VARANASI: This year, the millenia old city of Varanasi is all set for a grand and spectacular Dev Deepawali on Monday.
Apart from illuminating ghats with more than 10 lakh earthen lamps and spending over Rs 80 lakh on floral decoration of Kashi Vishwanath Dham, a 3-D projection of ‘Ganga avtaran’, other religious stories and Lord Shiva hymns at the banks of the Ganga at KVD will also be organised.With this projection, the tourists arriving at Kashi will be able to hear the story of river Ganga’s descent on Earth and Dev Deepawali.

City roads, markets, government establishments and crossings started illuminating with electrical bulb decoration works by Sunday evening.

New district magistrate S Rajalingam swung into action immediately after assuming charge of his office and reached ghats and KV Dham to monitor the preparations. Following spot inspection of the preparations he asked officials and employees to perform with team spirit to make the fest a grand success. He said that as there will be huge crowding on the festive day volunteers of all participating organisations should also assist in crowd regulation exercises.

Before the arrival of Rajalingam divisional commissioner Kaushal Raj Sharma, who also held the charge of DM, had ensured finalisation of all preparations for the mega day. Sharma said that to ensure a ‘divine’, ‘grand’ and ‘spectacular’ ‘Dev Deepawali not only 88 ghats along river Ganga and isand bed on opposite bank will be illuminated with record 10 lakh diyas but KV Dham will be adorned with flowers worth Rs 80 lakhs.

A decorator from Visakhapatnam has volunteered to decorate KV Dham free of cost. Earthen lamps will also be lit at all the major temples, ponds and lakes of Varanasi.
In view of the arrival of lakhs of tourists and devotees from across the globe massive traffic diversions and restrictions will be in place in and around the city. Commissioner of police A Satish Ganesh said that traffic diversion plan had been finalised and it will be made effective from Monday 11 am till the end of celebration in night.

Regarding itinerary of Dev Deepawali celebration joint director tourism Priti Srivastava said that lighting of earthen lamps at ghats along river Ganga and opposite bank will start at 5.15 pm. Laser light and sound show will start at the wall of Chet Singh Ghat after performing of traditional Ganga Aartis at 7 pm. During the 3-D laser show, religious stories will be seen alive on historical buildings on the ghat of Kashi, and hymns of lord Shiva will also be organized. The laser and sound show at the Ghat will be live for 8 minutes and all of these programs will be repeated at regular intervals so that every tourist can see it.

According to officials, the stories of ‘Ganga Avataran’, details of the Dev Deepawali, and a few tracks of the lord Shiva's hymns are being shot in five days and a team of more than 250 people including technicians, and engineers have been engaged to install and run the show at the ghat for the projection of said show through 20 laser projectors.

Green fireworks will be started from 7.40 pm on the opposite bank of KV Dham. This festival is celebrated on the occasion of Kartik Purnima but as lunar eclipse is taking place on the auspicious day on Tuesday, the Dev Deepawali is being observed as day before it. Notably, this year, Dev Deepawali is being celebrated a day before ahead of lunar eclipse on November 8.