PATHANAMTHITTA: Sabarimala temple is witnessing a heavy rush of pilgrims for the second consecutive day. On New Year’s Day, a total of 78,402 devotees had darshan. According to the police in Sabarimala, on Tuesday, till 8pm, as many as 70,000 pilgrims had darshan. The spot booking limit is 10,000 per day and the virtual queue booking limit is 80,000 per day.
To ensure effective crowd management at the temple for the Makaravilakku festival, the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) has decided to stop spot booking for pilgrims from January 10.
The famous Makaravilakku festival will be held on January 15. Speaking to TNIE, board president P S Prasanth said that the devaswom has started steps to address the shortage of ‘aravana prasadam’ at the hill shrine.
“Due to the shortage of ‘aravana’ cans, we are only providing five aravana cans per devotee. However, we will reinstate the normal state of sale of ‘aravana’ to pilgrims by Wednesday,” Prasanth said.
He also said that to ensure the safety of devotees who come to the hill shrine, devaswom has limited the virtual queue booking.
The virtual queue bookings for January 14 will be limited to 50,000, while the ceiling will be brought down by another 10,000 for the following day.
“As there will be a heavy rush of pilgrims to the temple on January 14 and 15, it is better if Malikappurams and child devotees avoid their visit to the temple on these days.
Instead, they can visit the hill shrine from January 16 to 20. The virtual queue booking ticket is a must for visiting Sabarimala temple,” he said. “We have arranged the supply of medicated drinking water in at least 52 spots,” he said.