KATHMANDU: President Ram Chandra Paudel offered puja (worship) at Pashupatinath Temple on the occasion of Maha Shivaratri today.

The main priest of Pashupatinath provided flowers and Prasad to the President.

Earlier, Chairman of the Pashupati Area Development Trust (PADT) and Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Hit Bahadur Tamang, Secretary at the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Dipak Kafle, PADT Member-Secretary Raju Kumar Khatri, chiefs of local levels, the high-ranking officials from the Guthi Sansthan and others welcomed the President at the Pashupatinath Temple premises.

As per the tradition, the Head of the State offers Pooja at Pashupatinath every year on the occasion of the Maha Shivaratri.

Currently, thousands of devotees have queued up to pay homage to the Lord Shiva at Pashupatinath.

So far, 430,000 devotees have paid obeisance to Pashupatinath.

All four doors of Pashupatinath temple have remained open since 2:00 am for the convenience of the pilgrims, PADT Spokesperson Rewati Raman Adhikari said.

The PADT shared that around 4,000 security personnel and equal number of volunteers has been deployed for the management of the Maha Shivaratri festival.