Himachal: Tourism department sets Guinness Record by preparing largest quantity of Khichdi

The Department of Tourism and Civil Aviation on Tuesday entered in the Guinness Book of Record for preparing 1995 kg serving of beans and rice (Khichdi) at Tattapani Tourism Festival during Makar Sankranti in Tattapani, Mandi district.

According to an official press release, the earlier record under this title was 918.8 kg. This was announced by the Chief Minister Jairam Thakur while addressing a largely attended gathering on the occasion of Tattapani Tourism Festival in Karsog area of Mandi district earlier today on the auspicious occasion of Makar Sakranti.

"It was an attempt to promote tourism destination as religious, cultural and water sports and this particular part of cooking rice as Adjudicator of Guinness World Record has recorded it. We have broken old record of cooking rice was of 918.8 kgs and we have cooked 1995 kgs rice as Khichdi. A team of 25 people was involved under the direction of chefs of HPTDC," said Yunus, Director Tourism and civil aviation department government of Himachal Pradesh.

"The utensil used for cooking the Khichdi was 7x4 feet in radius and this attempt was aimed at bringing Tattapani on the world tourism map," he added.

Chief Minister appreciated the Department of Tourism for succeeding in their mission of cooking Khichdi of such volume. He said that the Department has broken a record set earlier with a huge margin of about 1000 kg.

"This took around six to seven hours. We started cooking with 405kg rice, 190 kg daal (pulses), 90kg ghee (oil), 55kg spices...this was the attraction of makar Sakaranti" said Nandlal, Chief Chef and manager to prepare the Khichdi.

Jairam Thakur congratulated the people of the State on occasion of the Makar Sakranti and said that "It was the duty of all of us to preserve the rich cultural repository of the State. Due to the construction of Koldam, the area has emerged as a major water sports destination of the State."

Chief Minister further added that Tattapani would be developed from the tourism point of view as the area has immense potential of water sports.

Earlier, the Chief Minister visited the famous Narsingh Temple and Shani Dev Temple and performed Puja there.

Chief Minister was accorded a rousing welcome on his arrival at Tattapani where hundreds of people lined up on both sides of the road.