PATHANAMTHITTA: Though the heavy rush of pilgrims at Sabarimala temple continued on Monday, concerted efforts by the police and TDB staff ensured better crowd management at the Sannidhanam and Nadapandal. However, the blocking of vehicles on the Erumeli-Sabarimala and Pathanamthitta-Sabarimala routes led to a long tail-up of vehicles.
The vehicles were blocked to control the influx of pilgrims at Pampa and Sannidhanam. Long queues of vehicles could be seen at Eruthuvapuzha, Kanamala, Alappad Junction, Naranamthodu, Laha, Plapally, and Elavunkal. So, pilgrims coming from Erumeli and Pathanamthitta had to wait for hours on the road even before reaching Nilakkal.
As per the details shared by the police, till 7 pm on Monday, 54,692 pilgrims reached Sannidhanam through virtual Q.
A total of 15,93,633 pilgrims visited the hill shrine this season. Last year, around 50 lakh pilgrims visited the hill shrine and the temple revenue crossed Rs 350 crore. From this week, 80-85 pilgrims will be allowed to climb the holy steps in a minute. As many as 1,950 policemen are on duty in Sabarimala.
“KSRTC’s Sabarimala services earned Rs 13 .09 crore till date. On days of rush, KSRTC’s daily collection was around Rs 60 lakh. We have sold 22,02,000 tickets for Sabarimala services this season. We are operating 148 chain services on the Pampa-Nilakkal route and 38 long-distance services daily,” said KSRTC Pampa special officer Sunilkumar T. In the first 10 days of pilgrimage season, KSRTC earned over Rs 5 crore and daily collection stood at around Rs 50 lakh.
As part of safety arrangements, pilgrims were blocked at various places on the forest trekking path from Pampa to Sannidhanam. A special revenue squad led by the duty magistrate and the executive magistrate has been deployed to ensure drinking water facilities and the safety of devotees. The special queue for the disabled, elderly and children has come as a huge relief to such pilgrims.
The supply of drinking water and biscuits has been intensified. New water kiosks have been set up at Pampa in addition to KWA’s drinking water distribution centres. Nilakkal provided parking facilities for 61,307 vehicles from November 30 to December 10. Police sources said though there are 17 parking grounds at Nilakkal, parking facilities are not being fully utilised owing to the absence of staff to direct drivers to vacant spaces.
“If TDB deploys employees to manage the parking of vehicles on the parking grounds, it will help utilise the maximum space and a maximum of 8,000 vehicles can be parked on these grounds at a time,” said police sources.
TDB president P S Prasanth said that he would look into the issue and ensure smooth parking of vehicles at Nilakkal.