THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Sree Padmanabhaswami temple will have elaborate safety arrangements when it reopens. An Aadhaar-based online booking system, to be accessed through the temple website, will be mandatory for darshan. The temple administration had decided recently to continue with the lockdown restrictions till June-end.
“The temple administration committee will meet in the last week of this month to analyse the situation and decide whether visitors can be allowed,” said V Ratheesan, the executive officer of the temple. The Aadhaar-based booking system is aimed at identifying people coming from containment zones or other specific areas. It also helps to track children and the elderly who are advised to follow reverse quarantine. Those coming from vulnerable areas will be asked to submit the COVID-19 test certificate.
The devotees will have to undergo a mandatory screening process to assess their health condition. “Besides thermal scanning, appropriate measures will be taken to assess the health condition of the visitors,” said Ratheesan. Around 500 persons will be allowed darshan in a day and only five devotees would be present at the main shrine and the sub-shrines at any given time. Social distancing will be maintained.
Before the lockdown, the temple used to get a footfall between 2,000 and 20,000. The safety protocol for reopening also includes frequent fogging of the temple premises with disinfectants, with the administration having purchased thermal scanners and fogging machines. The city corporation had conducted an elaborate sanitisation of the temple premises recently. The rituals at the temple are being conducted as normal, the executive officer said.