KOCHI: Imagine receiving a message on your phone asking you to delay your visit to Sabarimala by a few hours because the hill shrine is already crowded. Or walking up to a counter, scanning a QR code, and collecting ‘aravana’ without waiting in a serpentine queue. The Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) is on a mission to turn this into reality.
A high-powered Project Management Unit (PMU), headed by retired IAS officer Dr Santhosh Babu, has begun work on what is being described as the biggest digital transformation in the history of the TDB, which manages around 1,250 temples besides schools, colleges, cultural institutions, and commercial ventures. “Our task is to eliminate the pain points for devotees and make every service seamless,” Santhosh told TNIE.
“Everything will come under a single platform built on a microservices architecture. Accommodation booking, offerings, billing, inventory, purchases, finance — everything,” he said.
The immediate focus is Sabarimala, where nearly one lakh devotees visit daily during the peak pilgrimage season. “Today, devotees often begin their journey six to eight hours early, even though they may need only two hours to reach the shrine. That creates unnecessary bottlenecks,” he said.
“We are looking at managing the movement of pilgrims from the time they leave their homes. We can send advisories asking them to start later so that traffic gets distributed more evenly,” he said.
The PMU is also planning QR code-based offerings. “Instead of standing in queues for ‘naivedyam’ bills, devotees should be able to pay online and simply collect the offering by showing a QR code. At the same time, we must cater to everyone — those using cash, UPI, or digital payments,” he said. One of the ideas under consideration is automated dispensing of offerings.
Automation project monitored by HC
“We are thinking of providing ‘naivedyam’ through systems similar to automated vending machines,” Santhosh said, pointing to the time-consuming process of distributing aravana to lakhs of pilgrims.
His larger ambition goes beyond digital payments. “My dream is to provide an experience similar to Digi Yatra. Why can’t devotees have the same kind of seamless movement at Sabarimala? That will come in the next stage,” he said.
The transformation, however, extends far beyond pilgrim services. The PMU will digitise inventory management, procurement, accounts, human resources, temple administration, leases, legal records, and asset management across the TDB.
“Inventory management is a huge task — purchase of jaggery, ghee, and every other item. Everything has to come onto the platform. Automation will bring accountability and reduce corruption opportunities significantly,” he said.
Stating that technology is not the biggest challenge, Santhosh said: “Software development is the easiest part. Domain collection is the hardest. We are conducting workshops with domain experts because every temple has different practices. We have to simplify and standardise wherever possible,” he said.
“The real challenge is changing decades-old systems. Frankly, not everyone welcomes automation,” he said. The Kerala High Court, which ordered the setting up of the PMU, is directly monitoring the project. According to its last month’s order, the programme will be implemented over 24 months, with an estimated first-year outlay of Rs 33.25 crore and an overall project cost capped at Rs 70 crore.
The platform will feature cloud-native architecture, real-time dashboards, immutable audit trails, and role-based access controls to improve transparency and governance.
Santhosh credited TDB president K Jayakumar for backing the initiative. “The devaswom board chief is thinking in a visionary manner. He is providing all the support and material needed for the project,” he said.The team hopes to roll out several Sabarimala-specific improvements before this pilgrimage season, while the complete enterprise-wide transformation is targeted for completion within two years.
