Maharashtra team visits Tirumala to study crowd management

Tirumala: A team of senior officials from the Maharashtra government along with Tuljapur MLA Ranajagjit Sinha P Patil arrived in Tirumala on Wednesday on a three-day visit to study the management of famed Tirumala temple and TTD administration with regard to pilgrims including darshan, accommodation, crowd management and various services being extended to pilgrims on the holy hills.

The team will study the systems being followed by TTD and implement them for better management crowd at Shri Tulja Bhavani Temple in Maharashtra. Tulja Bhavani Temple is a Hindu temple dedicated to Goddess Bhavani, also known as Durga is one of the 51 popular Shakti Peetams in India, located in Tuljapur (50 km from Solapur) in Maharashtra.

The team consisting of District Collector Dr Sachin Ombase, SP Atul Kulkarni, Chief Executive Officer Rahul Gupta, were briefed on the wide range of TTD activities including pilgrim amenities, darshan, accommodation, prasadam, annaprasadam facilities, engineering, vigilance, health, medical, Srivari Seva, SVBC and other activities by concerned heads of the departments through Powerpoint presentation in a meeting in Tirumala.

Later the team, accompanied by Liaison Officer and TTD Deputy Executive Officer Ananda Raju visited Annaprasadam Complex where free food is provided to the pilgrims visiting Tirumala daily from morning to midnight, CCTV command and control centre, Vaikuntam Queue Complex where pilgrims wait before allowed for darshan and other places in Tirumala, as part of their study of TTD administration. Speaking on occasion, District Collector of Tuljapur Dr Sachin said Shri Tuljabhavani temple in Osmanabad district of Maharashtra was one of the major centres of pilgrimage and nearly 80 lakh devotees visit the shrine every year. Especially on the two major festivals, Sharannavaratri and Chaitra Pournami days, over 15 lakh devotees offer prayers in the temple, he said adding that Shri Tuljabhavani was revered as Kuladevata (family deity) of Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, the emperor of Marathas.

To develop amenities to the pilgrims, infrastructure, the temple Trust and government officials visited the world-renowned Hindu shrine of Lord Venkateswara to study the pilgrim crowd management and other facilities being provided by TTD to the multitude of visiting pilgrims, he averred.

Earlier, Superintendent Engineer (II) Jagadeeshwar Reddy explained in detail about the pilgrim-friendly initiatives by TTD, engineering works, water and electricity consumption, functioning of PACs (pilgrim amenities complexes) etc. in Tirumala, while VGO (Vigilance) Giridhar gave the picture of the security apparatus in TTD through Powerpoint presentation and the Special Officer (Catering) GLN Sastry elaborated them on Annaprasadam activities and also showed them the cooking, storage, serving activities in MTVAC (Annadanam Complex).

The team also dined in the Annaprasadam Complex and complimented the impeccable services of TTD to the scores of pilgrims.