TTD efficiently deals with surge in crowd at Tirumala

Tirupati: In a commendable measure, the temple management TTD efficiently brought the surging crowds under control on Sunday by clearing the maximum number of pilgrims in Tirumala, bringing down the waiting time drastically for the tokenless pilgrims.

On Saturday, the tireless efforts of TTD officials led by EO Dharma Reddy saw 85,450 devotees had darshan while on Sunday also the same tempo maintained by the temple officials resulted in about 50,000 having the glimpse of Lord by Sunday evening, easing out the tight situation considerably.

The queue line of waiting pilgrims, which stretched 5 kms reaching Silathoranam junction on Outer Ring Road, shrinked much and is now more or less confined near the queue complex indicating the temple management's success in clearing the rush of pilgrims in two-day contrary to the expectation of three to four days.

It may be recalled that the pilgrim rush, which started on Thursday night due to consecutive holidays, swelled further on Friday and reached its peak on Saturday keeping the TTD officials on tenterhooks, particularly the vigilance department and the staff at the queue complex and in the shrine. However, the concrete efforts of officials in clearing rush and ensuring the safety of pilgrims by avoiding no jostling anywhere in the serpentine queue and also in the sanctum sanctorum yielded results.

First, the temple officials estimated that the tough situation will ease out by Monday or Tuesday morning after the holiday but much to the surprise of all, a day earlier, the TTD staff facilitated the darshan much to the relief of scores of pilgrims, who came from far off places.

TTD ensured round-the-clock supply of food and water through the Srivari Sevaks to pilgrims waiting in the massive queue complex and also outside the queue lines, easing the difficulties of devotees to some extent.

TTD also curtailed the VIP break darshan, Rs 300 special entry darshan tickets and also Srivani trust tickets to give priority to common pilgrims, which yielded positive results by providing darshan to more number of devotees while deploying big contingent of 2,500 Srivari Sevaks for service of waiting pilgrims won the kudos from the pilgrims.