TTD executive officer MG Gopal on Saturday inspected the Rs 300 darshan advance booking queue line on Tirumala along with Tirumala JEO KS Sreenivasa Raju. The queue line commences at TBC 129 at Tirumala.
The EO inspected the facilities provided to the pilgrims and also personally supervised tickets scanning process inside the queue line.
Meanwhile, officials said the advance booking system of Rs 300 special entry darshan tickets is gaining pace among the pilgrim.
The pilgrims who booked their tickets on the first day of the launch of the system on August 20- had their darshan through this new system on August 27.
In the first week-- from August 27 to September 2-- of the 18,000 tickets allotted in this system of darshan, TTD has released only 11,000 tickets on a trial basis. In the past week, 91,030 pilgrims had darshan in Rs 300 system. Out of them, 23,477 had darshan through the newly introduced advance booking system. Among them, 18,647 pilgrims had booked the tickets and availed darshan under Internet booking while 4,830 had darshan under e-Darshan tickets, the officials added.
Officials said since the period starting from third week of August to third week of September is considered to be slag period, there is a considerable decrease in pilgrim flow. “We can judge the exact results only after September 20 with the advent of Dasara holidays combined with Srivari annual brahmotsavams which is the peak season of the pilgrim influx,” an official added.