Summer rush at Tirupati

Tirupati: With summer vacation starting in schools, and it being a long weekend (Monday being a holiday on account of Ambedkar Jayanti), the Lord Venkateshwara temple at Tirumala witnessed a heavy influx of devotees from across the country.

Tens of thousands of devotees made their way to the hill shrine. With the unprecedented rush continuing, the facilities in terms of accommodation and other amenities were stretched beyond their limit. Pilgrims were forced to wait in serpentine lines in the scorching sun.

Much to the inconvenience of the devotees, the wait for darshan also stretched to almost 24 hours. By the end of the day on Monday, the wait period had reduced to 15 hours.

According to Tirumala Tirupati Devastanamulu sources, as many as 44,378 devotees had darshan of Lord Venkateswara from Monday morning till about 6 pm in the evening.

Almost as many devotees were in the queues awaiting their turn for darshan in the evening.