Tirupati: Pilgrim city limping back to normalcy

Tirupati: With the rains stopped, it is business as usual in the pilgrim city buzzing with activities while the flow of pilgrims which is near normal resulting in the areas around Railway station and APSRTC bus stand thronging with people visiting Tirumala. The eateries and petty shops in the areas where pilgrim movement is more, is elated with the resuming of their business as well as the private transporters like taxis and autos, who are solely depending on the pilgrims flow.

According to TTD sources, the pilgrim rush which was dipped to less than 15,000 due to the rains hitting the train and bus services has picked up and has crossed 25,000 boosting the business activities in the city. Normal life was hit hard during the two spells of heavy rains which caused heavy damages and inundation of most areas in the city, where the waterlogging was cleared from almost all places particularly in the main town where schools, colleges, hotels, offices started

functioning as usual. The hawkers including vegetable, fruit and flower sellers and other items were seen moving briskly on the streets, lanes and bylanes while in the evening, the eateries selling chats and also those selling food items like mirchi bajjis on the road sides, near busy junctions and crowded areas too are happy with their business resumed.

Surender, a vegetable vendor and Ganesh Lal, running a Chat Bandar said they resumed their business after 10 days and added that people like them depending solely on the daily business for sustaining their families are happy with the return of normalcy.

Interestingly, the rates of vegetables slowly coming down thanks to the arrival of supplies which were hit during rains increased considerably. At many centres and outskirts, tomatoes sold for Rs 30-40 per kg while the fruits like guava came down less than Rs 50 perkg much to the relief of people from middle and lower middle classes.