Thousands of devotees offered prayers to the Sun God on the last day of the four-day Chhath Puja celebrations in the city. Housewives along with their families thronged the riverbanks to pray before the rising Sun for prosperity and happiness of their husbands and family members.

The banks of river Subarnarekha and Kharkai were abuzz with activities as devotees headed towards the ‘ghats’ from Wednesday afternoon. Several temporary canopies were also put by city-based social and cultural organisations to lend help and essential commodities to the devotees and fast observers. Moreover, district administration had deployed police personnel and emergency services like ambulance at riverbanks.

Devotees offered ‘Araghya’ to the setting sun at various ghats in Mango, Adityapur, Baghbera, Sidghora. However, ghats at Adityapur and Mango like always witnessed the maximum devotees.

The Domuhani ghat in Sonari, the famous ghat witnessed a crowd of about 2 lakh devotees who came along with their families to offer arghya. The Subernarekha ghat in Mango was where about 1.5 lakh devotees visited for both the days.

The Surya Mandir  in Sidhgora witnessed a crowd of 60,000 devotees while the Bhuiyadih ghat, Pandey ghat, Kapali ghat witnessed around 20,000 people.

The ghats were lit up by lights, cleaned by civic bodies like Jusco and Jamshedpur Notified Area Committee too. Danger areas were demarcated and a couple of divers were also deputed in the ghats.

Women had fasted for 36 hours from day before yesterday popularly known as ‘Kharna’. The women offered their first ‘arghya’ yesterday in the evening and the fast and rituals were over after the second ‘arghya’ to the sun rise.

A Bhojpuri Sangh official, said: “The festival which aims at bringing peace and harmony in the family should be celebrated across the country. It is because of the Sun, we are able to survive and live. Hence, worshiping Sun god is a must.”