Temple darshanams: Devotees skip virtual queue after booking

Kochi: The Sabarimala virtual Q was aimed at helping devotees reach sannidhanam without waiting in the long queue usually formed at Pampa,  but nearly half of those who booked the time slots failed to make use of the facility last season.

The reason: the devotees could not report at the counters concerned at Pampa on time.

“Out of the 15.26 lakh pilgrims who booked slots last time (2013-14), only 8.57 lakh utilised the facility (56 per cent). From the last season onwards, we insisted that devotes stick to the time slot allotted,” said an officer with the online portal.

This even as 12.69 lakh out of the 15.64 lakh devotees (81 per cent) who reserved time slots in the 2012-13 season availed of the special queue facility.

Sabarimala virtual Q is an online portal for devotees to book a slot on the separate queue maintained by the Kerala police.

The system generates a fixed number of coupons for every hour and the  devotees can plan to reach Pampa on the specified time and enter the queue without  waiting.

“This time over, we will give the warning in the coupon itself and no excuses would be entertained,” the officer said.

The  majority of pilgrims who avail of  the online queue booking facility hail from Tamil Nadu (6.43 lakh last time), followed by Andhra Pradesh (3.85 lakh) while the local devotees come a distant third with 3.3 lakh.