Heavy influx of pilgrims
36,000 trekked the hill by foot
By : DC Correspondent
Update: 2015-05-24 05:30 GMT
Tirupati: As the summer vacation is coming to an end in few days, the temple town of Tirumala witnessed heavy surge in pilgrim rush on Saturday. The demand for accommodation was such that many pilgrims were seen sleeping on the roadside. The rush is being attributed to release of Class X, Eamcet and E-set results in the recent past.
According to information 36,000 pilgrims trekked the hill by foot on Friday and the number is likely to cross 40,000 on Saturday. As many as 73,689 devotees had the darshan of the Lord on Friday and 60,948 have shaved their heads at the tonsuring centre.
It is taking nearly 12 hours for darshan for those coming on foot and 20 hours for free darshan. The queue lines have been overflowing with the pilgrims. Meanwhile, the TTD officials claimed that they have made elaborate arrangements to cope up with the pilgrim rush. According to a communiqué, over 2,500 Srivari Seva volunteers have been deputed at various points including all darshan points, Vaikuntam Queue Complex I and II, Annaprasadam, health, vigilance, temple and other wings in Tirumala to control the pilgrim rush.
Tirumala JEO K.S. Srinivasa Raju has personally monitored the arrangements and inspected the queue lines, VQC I and II, laddu counters, four-Mada streets etc. He instructed the officials to see that the arrangements of food, buttermilk, water distribution be in place round the clock during week-ends in connection with heavy pilgrim rush.