Pilgrim crowd swells at Tirumala

Tirumala: The hill shrine of Lord Venkateswara is witnessing a heavy turnout of pilgrims due to summer vacation for schools and colleges coupled with consecutive holidays since Friday.The influx of pilgrim which started increasing at Tirumala on Friday reached its peak on Saturday and there was no let up on Sunday.

Highlights:

• About 2.4 lakh devotees had darshan of the Lord during the last 3 days
• 2,500 Srivari Sevakulu and 500 scouts and guides also rendering service to pilgrims along with the regular TTD staff

According to temple sources, about 2.40 lakh devotees had darshan of then Lord during the last three days including 80,306 on April 14, followed by 93,616 on Saturday and 64,680 on Sunday (up to 6 p.m.).The pilgrim crowd status as on Sunday evening was Sarva Darshan category devotees were waiting in 31 compartments.

As many as 47,749 pilgrims tonsured their head on Friday in various tonsure centres including the main Kalayanakatta and on Saturday 36,398.TTD EO Dr D Sambasiva Rao and Tirumala JEO KS Sreenivasa Raju on Sunday inspected the queue lines and compartments at regular intervals.

The EO inspected the Divya Darshanam Complex meant for footpath route pilgrims and monitored the facilities being provided to the pilgrims and the movement of lines.Tirumala JEO conducted late night inspection on Saturday and inspected the Sarva Darshan and Divya Darshan lines on Sunday. He instructed the Annaprasadam and health wing officials to provide food and water to pilgrims at regular intervals as per schedule.

Meanwhile, over 2,500 Srivari Sevakulu and 500 scouts and guides have been rendering services to pilgrims in queue lines, luggage centres and monitoring crowd management inside temple, laddu counters Annaprasadam, VQCs etc round-the-clock in addition to the TTD staff to cope with the heavry rush.