Junagadh News- Girnar Mountain Parvat Parikrama 2011

Girnar Parikrama registers record number of devotees.

More than one million devotees have already participated in Girnar Mountain(Parvat)'s annual Parikrama during the last five days, the highest figure in the history of the event.

According to forest officials, while 10 lakh people have already completed the 36-km-long Girnar Parvat Parikrama, a huge number of devotees are still visiting the place from across the state.

M R Vyas, Junagadh ST depot manager, said, “We are running more than hundred extra services to different destinations across Saurashtra(Kathiyavad) region."

According to Vyas, state transport buses are ferrying over one lakh passengers every day from the Junagadh(Saurastra) depot.

Railway officials said, on an average, 20,000 people have used the Railways as the means of transport in the last five days alone.

In order to ensure a comfortable journey to the people, railway officials, along with a local NGO, have started ‘Annashetra’ (free food facility) for passengers. Around 70 ‘Annashetras’ have been opened along the Parikrama route.

Junagadh News - Girnar Mountaineering Competition 2010

A total of 1,795 entries have been received from 16 districts across the state for the State-Level Girnar Mountaineering Competition to be held on January 4 next year.

It is to be followed by the national-level Girnar Mountaineering Competition on February 1.

The competition, which is organized every year by the state’s Youth, Sports and Cultural department, has support of the Junagadh(Saurastra) district administration, which is now pooling in its resources to remove the last-minute glitches, if any.

Out of a total 1,795 entries received so far, majority have come in from Junagadh (1,365), followed by Rajkot (161), Jamnagar (81), Amreli (67), Porbandar (28), Gandhinagar (24), Kutch (16), Surendranagar and Dahod (14 each), Valsad (9), Sabarkantha (6), Panchmahals (5), Bhavnagar (2), and one entry each from Ahmedabad, Vadodara and Kheda districts.

Dev Kumar Aambaliya, coordinator of the competition and deputy mamalatdar with the state Revenue department, said: “Out of the total entries received so far, 1,448 are under the men’s category, and the remaining 347 in the women’s category.”

He also said that a record of 55.33 minutes had been established in the men’s group in last year’s competition, which involved a total of 4,862 steps.

The women’s group on the other hand had set a record of 35.15 minutes last year in which they had to take a total of 2,200 steps.

“We are trying for a live telecast and have also conducted a survey in this regard. The competition is mainly aimed at providing thrill and adventure to the youth along with giving them a national-level exposure,” he added.

Aambaliya further said that the Girnar Mount Climbing Competition is unique in its own way with no such competition being organised anywhere else across the country.