SABARIMALA: Traffic chaos at Pampa and between Chalakkayam and Nilackal caused severe hardships for thousands of pilgrims, who were stranded in thick forest to five to seven hours from Friday late night to Saturday afternoon.
Indiscriminate parking in front of the Pampa police station building and near Triveni U-turn and the subsequent traffic bottleneck at Pampa halted the movement of pilgrim vehicles and KSRTC buses.
The queue of vehicles extended up to Attathode Colony, 15 km from Chalakkayam, forcing thousands of pilgrims to go without drinking water or eatables.
KSRTC schedules worst-hit: The KSRTC schedules, especially the Pampa-Nilackal chain services, were affected owing to the traffic bottlenecks at Pampa and between Chalakayam and Nilackal.
The home-bound pilgrims and the pilgrims who come for darsan were affected following the traffic chaos.The pilgrims, especially those who come from other states, were stranded at Pampa for hours. As a result, the Pampa-Nilackal services were affected for hours and smooth flow of RTC was hit.
Unprecedented rush: Unprecedented flow of pilgrims was witnessed for darsan of Lord Ayyappa, the biggest-ever during the ongoing season, at Sabarimala and Pampa on Saturday.
The long queue of pilgrims, which reached up to Appachimedu early morning on Saturday, forcing the pilgrims to wait for eight hours for darsan.
The police personnel faced severe hardships to control the unprecedented flow at Sabaripedom, Marakoottam, Saramkuthi and Nadapandal.