Speed up process to set up Slotted Sarva Darshan counters in Tirupati: EO

Tirupati: The TTD EO Anil Kumar Singhal directed the officials concerned to come out with an action plan by identifying the pilgrim crowd places in Tirupati to set up Slotted Sarva Darshan (SSD) counters. He held a review meeting with senior officials at conference hall in TTD Administrative Building here on Monday. 

The EO directed the engineering officials to identify the places like railway station and bus stand in Tirupati as they are abuzz with pilgrim activity and speed up the plan for setting up SSD counters. He stated the working time of SSD counters which are to be set up in Tirupati should be decided based on the peak time of arrivals of trains. 

The IT wing should get ready with the necessary software and hardware equipment required for this,” he maintained. The EO also instructed Tirumala JEO KS Srinivasa Raju to study thoroughly the releasing of VQC compartments and ensure measures that there will not be any jostling among pilgrims. He also instructed the engineering wing to assess the requirement of information display boards at vital points in Tirumala.

Singhal has directed the Tirupati JEO P Bhaskar to ensure more qualitative services by call centre staff and to commence the on-line booking of TTD Kalyanamandapams from this month onwards starting with Chittoor district.

On vigilance front, the EO instructed CVSO A Ravikrishna and officials concerned to speed up the setting up of advanced CCTV cameras in all the important information centres of TTD across the country, Kalyana Vedika, Annaprasada Bhavan in Tirumala. The EO asked the forest officials to bring rare flowering plants from Kadiyam nursery of Rajahmahendravaram for the beautification of Tirumala.

Later, the EO informed the CE Chandrasekhar Reddy to speed up the works of Vontimitta temple and also the ongoing civil works at Avilala tank and Ramanujapalle Junction. On refund for cottages, the EO said at present TTD is refunding 50 per cent amount to pilgrims, who vacate the rooms within 12 hours.

He directed the FACAO Balaji, to ensure that the payment goes directly into their bank accounts if they have Aadhaar card and find out the way on how to refund the amount for those pilgrims who have no Aadhaar.