AI to speed up Lord’s darshan at Tirumala

Tirumala: The first meeting of the newly-constituted Tirumala-Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) Trust Board, under the chairmanship of B Rajagopala Naidu, convened at Annamayya Bhavan on Monday. The meeting resulted in several significant resolutions aimed at improving services for devotees and streamlining administrative practices.

After the meeting, Chairman Rajagopala Naidu announced the board’s decisions in the presence of Executive Office J Syamala Rao, Additional EO Ch Venkaiah Chowdary, and other board members.

Addressing a longstanding demand, the board wants to adopt Artificial Intelligence to reduce the waiting time for Lord Venkateswara Swamy’s darshan. Currently stretching up to 20-30 hours during peak periods, the board aims to bring it down to 2-3 hours. An expert committee will be formed to explore the operational and infrastructural changes necessary to achieve this goal which may bring a sea change in having the Lord’s darshan.

Contrary to social media rumours, the board decided to retain the SRIVANI scheme albeit with a new name. However, a proposal to merge the SRIVANI Trust with TTD’s main account and rename it is under consideration.

In response to mounting complaints about irregularities in Special Entry Darshan (SED) ticket allocations under the Tourism Corporation quotas, the board resolved to abolish this category of Darshan Quotas. This will have a huge impact on the tourism corporations of various states, including Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Tamil Nadu. The board also resolved to rename the Srinivasa Setu flyover in Tirupati to its old name, Garuda Varadhi. Another crucial decision was taken in favour of devotees from Tirupati city. Soon after the necessary orders are issued, they will be granted Srivari darshan on the first Tuesday of every month.

The board directed the authorities to initiate steps to clear the piled-up debris in Tirumala’s dumping yard within 3 to 4 months.

The board resolved to hike Brahmotsava Bahumanam for the TTD employees by 10 percent as they contributed to the smooth conduct of this year’s Brahmotsavams. Accordingly, regular employees will receive Rs 15,400, while outsourcing staff will get Rs 7,535.

Repairs to the temple kitchen (Potu) and modernisation of the Vengamamba Annaprasadam complex will be executed in collaboration with TVS. A new tasty recipe will also be introduced to the daily Annaprasadam menu.

The board decided to write to the state government to seek clarity on the employment of non-Hindus in Tirumala.

In its bid to maintain the sanctity of the sacred Tirumala, legal action will be taken against individuals making or propagating political statements in Tirumala.

To ensure the safety of TTD’s deposits, the board plans to move its funds from private banks to nationalised banks. This will be finalised in the next meeting. The board approved the cancellation of the lease granted to Visakha Sarada Peetham following an expert committee’s report on rule violations.