TIRUMALA/KURNOOL/VIJAYAWADA: Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) has made elaborate arrangements for the trial-run of darshan of Lord Venkateswara for three days starting Monday. Not just the Tirumala temple, but shrines across the state have made similar arrangements.
While the TTD will be resuming darshan at Tirumala and other temples under its management from Thursday, other major places of worship in the state—Kanaka Durga in Vijayawada, Srisailam in Kurnool and Simhachalam in Visakhapatnam—will reopen their gates for the devotees on Wednesday.
TTD additional executive officer AV Dharma Reddy inspected the arrangements on Sunday. He checked queue lines, which were modified to regulate the devotees’ movement and marked to ensure physical distancing of six feet among them.
At strategic locations, thermal scanners and sanitisers have been arranged and around 500 staff wearing PPE will be stationed to regulate the devotees’ flow in the queue lines and elsewhere in Tirumala. During the trial run, TTD staff from Tirumala and Tirupati, along with locals, will be allowed for darshan.
Only 300-500 people will be let inside the premises per hour. The objective is to identify any shortcomings and understand how effective the system put in place is. If there are any shortcomings, they will be rectified immediately, officials explained.
TTD, which will open online booking for darshan from Monday, has made similar arrangements for other temples too. Offline booking of tickets will commence on June 10. Meanwhile, arrangements at Kalyana Katta, Annadhanam Complex, Laddu Prasadam Counters are also in place; medical teams are put on standby at Tirumala and Alipiri.
On the other hand, Srikalahasti temple, another important pilgrim site in Chittoor, will remain closed as it is still located in a containment zone. Similar arrangements are made in Srisiailam temple. As the temple doors will open for sarva darshan on June 10, the authorities will begin the trial run there Monday to test the efficacy of the system.
Temple executive officer KS Rama Rao said devotees have to maintain a minimum distance of six feet among themselves. At Kanaka Durga, only those who booked tickets online will be allowed for darshan. As the trial run is scheduled on Monday and Tuesday, 250-300 devotees (temple staff and locals) will be let inside every hour. There will not be any antarayala darshan there.