TaraTarini Hill Shrine among the most visited destinations of India

The famous Taratarini Hill Shrine (the Sthana Peetha (Breast Shrine) of Mata Sati, one amongst the 4 major ancient Shakti centers in India. and an important prehistoric religious center which bears an uninterrupted history of 6000 years), near Berhampur city is gradually emerging as the popular destination of visitors in Orissa.
According to the data available from the ‘Taratarini Development Board’, this year on the auspicious occasion of the holy month of Chaitra (March / April 2009) at the Taratarini Hill Shrine more than 17 lakh devotees visited the Breast Shrine within a month from various states of India and abroad for a Darshan of the Twin Goddesses. It is noteworthy, that the four holy Tuesdays of the month of Chaitra are famous for Shakti Puja in this Breast Shrine of Mata Sati. So, every year lakhs of devotees visit this shrine on these days.
It is worth mentioning that this year, particularly in the four famous Tuesdays around 12 lakh devotees have visited and in other days around 5 lakh visited to the Hill Shrine
Amongst them around 13,00,000 visitors are from Orissa, 2,00,000 from Andhra Pradesh around 1,00,000 from West Bengal and the rest mainly from Chattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Assam and other States.
However, this year the number of visitors from overseas has gone down compared to previous years. This time around a thousand foreigners visited during this month to the famous holy Shrine.
However, the figures available from various source reveals that this year’s gathering has surpassed the records of earlier years and with 17 lakh visitors this holy Shrine virtually has established a new record amongst the religious destinations of the country.The Statistics:First Tuesday of Chaitra total number of devotees visited, about: 1,92,000
Second Tuesday of Chaitra total number of devotees visited, about: 3,98,000
Third Tuesday of Chaitra total number of devotees visited, about: 4,80,000
Fourth Tuesday of Chaitra total number of devotees visited, about: 1,60,000
In other days of Chaitra, total number of devotees visited, around 5,00,000
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Total 17,30,000
Apart from this month, in the rest 11 months around 8,00,000 visitors are expected to visit this holy Shrine. So the Tara Tarini development Board has anticipated that, this year the figure of the total number of visitors will go up to 25 lakhs.
The Statistics of Last 5 Years:

1. 2004---12,00,000
2. 2005---13,78,000
3. 2006---15,07,000
4. 2007---16,70,000
5. 2008---19,40,000

Sensing this rapid growth of visitors the state administration in cooperation with the Ganjam district administration has created ‘Taratarini Development Board’ incorporating some of the eminent persons of Orissa and mainly from Southern Orissa, under the Chairmanship of the Revenue Divisional Commissioner (RDC) Southern Orissa in 2002/03. Since then the Taratarini Development Board (TTDB) has started the overall development of the Taratarini Hill Shrine and its nearby areas. Over this period of time the Board has successfully completed the work of a stone temple on the Hilltop for the Twin Goddesses and has initiated the work of widening of the 999 sacred stone steps with rest sheds, widening of the roads leading to the Hilltop and providing drinking water facility on the hill top and constructed the first Arial “Rope Way” of Eastern India for fastest communication of visitors.
After the formation of the Board this famous Breast Shrine got the much needed attention and spark and owing to that in the last five years the number of pilgrims visiting the shrine has gone up significantly.
To keep pace with this, the Board has approved a number of new projects for the benefit of visitors. Some of the prioritized list of works proposed by the TTDB to be taken up in the first phase, on the hilltop of the Taratarini Hill Shrine for the convenience of devotees and tourists are…………

· Construction of administrative office on the hilltop.
· Construction of Bhog Bazaar on the hilltop.
· Construction of Mundan shade on the hilltop.
· Construction of a hospital.
· Construction of public utilities
· Construction of waiting hall for the Rope-way on the hilltop.
· Arrangement of space to accommodate the buildings for ATMs, Lockers, Shoe stands and other facilities.
· Further development of Arial Rope-way.
· Construction of Kalyana Mandapam.
· Construction of outer protection wall and River side retaining wall to check land sliding and soil erosion at the hilltop.
· Construction of huge parking space at the hilltop.
· Flood Lighting arrangements at the hilltop and inside the Temple premises.
· Lighting arrangement on the 999 holy stone steps and road leading to the Hilltop from Taratarini junction.
· Widening of stone steps and arrangement of public utilities/ rest houses.
· Further widening of the existing road to the Hilltop.
· Maintenance of eco-system in and around the sacred hill by huge plantation in its nearby areas.
Also Published in the Hindu, Tathya.in & OrissaDiary.com