The Shirdi Sai Baba temple and the Shani Shingnapur temple in Maharashtra are reopened from Thursday (Oct. 7) for devotees. However, strict pandemic-related guidelines are to be followed, and officials will ensure that all the devotees wear masks and maintain distancing protocols while visiting the temple.
Guidelines:
A maximum of 15,000 devotees is to be allowed in the Shirdi Sai Baba temple daily, while the number of pilgrims at the Shani Shingnapur temple will be capped at 20,000 a day.
The Shirdi Sai Baba temple is issuing 5,000 paid passes, 5,000 online passes, and 5,000 offline passes for the devotees. No more than 1,150 devotees will be allowed to be inside the temple premises at any hour.
Meanwhile, the temple aarti can be attended by a maximum of 90 devotees.
Devotees going to both the Shirdi Sai Baba and the Shani Shingnapur temples must mandatorily wear masks and maintain social distancing wherever applicable. For this purpose, the administration has fixed entry from entrance number 2, while exit will be facilitated through exit gates numbers 4 and 5 at the Shirdi Sai Baba temple.
The Dhyan Mandir and Parayan Kaksh will remain closed, the administration informed, adding that pregnant women, children below 10 years of age, and people above 65 years will not be allowed to enter the temple.
