Devotees in huge numbers thronged various temples of Lord Sri Ram across the silk city to offer prayers on the occasion of Sri Ram Navami here on Saturday.

The temples across the silk city were crowded with devotees since early hours of Saturday. Special programmes including musical

recitals of Sri Ram Charit Manas and Ram Katha Amrit were organised in some of the temples.

The oldest Ram temple in City High School Road, Hanuman Temple in Ramalingam Tank Road, Ram temple in Panabika street, Mandiapalli Hanuman temple near Berhampur

University and several such places across the city witnessed big turnout of devotees. A large number of female devotees were seen standing in queue in front of the temples with variety of fruits and sweets to offer puja to Godess Sri Ram to mark the event and obtain blessings of the Lord.

Notably, the city fruit vendors sold fruits at much higher rates taking advantage of the rush on the day.

Elaborate security arrangements were made by the administration and the local police for smooth darshan and to prevent any untoward incidents.

The Ram Navami festival also marks the end of nine days of Navaratri festival, during which a large number of devotees observe fast in reverence of Goddess Durga.

The Patanjali Yuva Bharat and the Patanjali Yoga Samiti organized a blood donation camp here in Bank Colony Kalyan Mandap to mark the event. Subrat Pujari, Sisir Kumar Das, Abhi Pradhan, K Rabi Babu,

Sunil Kumar Sahu, Brundaban Pattnaik, Sitaram Panda, Narasingh Sethi, Rishi Gouda, Chittaranjan Das, Sanjukta Prusty, Anjali Sahu, Santunu Padhi, Sudarsan Sabat, Dr Rashmita Panigrahi and Ranjan Kumar Nanda joined the event and inspired the donors. More than 30 units of blood were collected. Patanjali doctor Debaraj Panigrahi, Pradip Sahu and Rashmiranjan Sahu coordinated the programme.