TTD moots building bigger shrine in Chennai

Chennai: Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) chairman Y V Subba Reddy on Thursday said the board was contemplating constructing a bigger and spacious temple in Chennai to cater to devotees from Tamil Nadu.

Stating that a majority of devotees who visited the Lord Venkateswara temple at Tirupati were from Tamil Nadu, Subba Reddy said the board would take a decision after consulting Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy.

"We constructed a temple in Kanyakumari. Similarly a decision will be taken to construct bigger and spacious temple, apart from the existing one, in Chennai after consultations with the Chief Minister," he told reporters. "If needed, our CM will initiate a dialogue with the Tamil Nadu government seeking lands for the temple," he added.

On junking of categories (List 1, List 2 and List 3) in the VIP darshan system at the Tirupati temple, the TTD chairman said the move had brought down the total time allotted for special entry to "one-and-a-half hours to two hours from four hours."

"I would like to clarify that we have not cancelled VIP darshan, but we have only removed categorisation which was used to mislead people and help ticket sales in black market thrive," he told PTI.

"Every hour can accommodate 6,000 to 7,000 devotees. We have given utmost priority to the devotees," he added.