TIRUMALA: In a move to provide a hassle-free experience to the devotees, the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) introduced an automated luggage management system at Tirumala. According to the TTD, the initiative would help in the speedy transportation of luggage of the devotees, who reach Tirumala via the pedestrian routes—Alipiri and Srivari Mettu.
TTD Executive Officer AV Dharma Reddy launched the new advanced baggage delivery and management system at Annamayya Bhavan on Tuesday. The new system was developed with the help of three devotees, who have donated Rs 2.16 crore for equipment cost, including all the devices, cabins, partitions, advanced QR code scanners, RFID cards, tags, systems, real-time tracking computers and others.
One of the donors, Venugopal from Bengaluru, donated the entire software. While a Christian devotee from Coimbatore gave funds worth Rs 2.6 crore, another from Bengaluru donated the bag tracking system, scanners and other equipment. Elaborating on the luggage system, Dharma Reddy said that the luggage counters have been upgraded and digitalised.
“In the new system, once a devotee deposits a bag, he will get an SMS on his mobile phone to track and collect the baggage. The photo of the devotees would also be taken while depositing the luggage and would be matched during the time of return,” he further stated.
Elaborating further, the EO said that the darshan tickets would be scanned and would be automatically saved along with details of their luggage under the new system. For those without darshan tickets, their goods are scanned and an RFID code is generated with a QR code receipt.
When the receipts are scanned at the display kiosks in front of the luggage counter, the luggage availability is indicated immediately with a colour coding system. They are further loaded on trolleys and sent to the respective counters.