Record number of 80K devotees get darshan at Tirumala on Saturday
A view of the vehicles stranded on the road leading to the Alipiri tollgate, the checking point at the ghat road to Tirumala on Sunday
Tirupati: A record number of 80,429 had darshan in the famed Tirumala temple on Saturday. The cash offering in the temple Hundi also crossed Rs 5 crore mark and stood at Rs 5.13 lakh (Saturday) which is highest in the recent months. Due to consecutive holidays including Holi festival, Saturday and Sunday, the hill shrine is witnessing a heavy crowd of pilgrims from Friday and is expected to come down on Monday or Tuesday. The railway station, APSRTC central bus station and also Alipiri tollgate leading to Tirumala teemed with pilgrim crowd while it took hours for checking and clearance at the tollgate resulting in the hundreds of vehicles waiting lined up, stranded on both sides - on the Alipiri road and also bypass road for a km on Saturday and also on Sunday. TTD sources said about 11,000 vehicles passed through the tollgate to Tirumala on
Saturday (3 am to 12 midnight). TTD is allowing 30,000 pilgrims avail the Time Slotted Sarva Darshan (SSD) tokens issued across the counters at three places in Tirupati
for free darshan and 25,000 special entry darshan (SED) tickets (Rs 300) daily which were issued in advance online for darshan. In addition to this, two categories, TTD provides darshan under various categories including Arjitha sevas, donors, VIP break, Supatham and also Srivani Trust breakdarshan to cope with the increasing number of
pilgrims who desire to visit Tirumala for darshan of Lord. According to temple sources, 66,577 pilgrims had darshan on Thursday and on Friday 66,577. The number of pilgrims who underwent tonsuring as a mark of fulfillment of their vows also increasing in tune with the increase in the number of pilgrims.
On March 17, the number of tonsures was 31,471 which increased to 22,133 on March 18 and 38,182 on March 19, TTD sources said. Keeping in view the increase in pilgrim rush, the TTD arranged distribution of food at two more places – at Rambagicha bus station and at Sudarshan choultry in addition to the free food at Annadanam complex in Tirumala for the convenience of the pilgrims.