Free darshan at Tirumala temple: 2.60 lakh tickets booked in 14 minutes

TIRUPATI: A total of 2.60 lakh free darshan tickets were booked by devotees in less than 14 minutes -- after the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) released the online quota of the Slotted Sarva Darshan (SSD) tokens for January 2022, at 9 am on Monday.

The temple panel had, on Monday, released 5,000 tickets a day for the period between January 13 and 22 (during the Vaikunta Dwara darshanam days) and about 10,000 tickets a day for the remaining days in January 2022.

“Though lakhs of devotees made simultaneous logins to book the limited number of SSD tickets released on the online mode, no technical hiccup has surfaced this time. The free darshan ticket quota got exhausted in a record time of 14 minutes. After the TTD’s IT wing, with the help of Jio and TCS, shifted the online darshan ticketing systems to cloud-based technology, there are no glitches,” an official observed.

Meanwhile, the TTD would release the online tickets quota of SRIVANI (Sri Venkateswara Alaya Nirmanam) trust at 3pm on Tuesday. TTD is releasing 1,000 break darshan (and Rs 500 for laghu darshan) tickets for January 1, 2022 on the online mode. Similarly, 1,000 tickets (Rs  300 for maha laghu darshan) for Vaikunta Ekadasi (Jan. 13) will also be released simultaneously.

Likewise, for the remaining nine days of Vaikunta dwara darshanam starting from Jan. 14 till 22, some 2,000 tickets per day (at the rate of Rs 500 for laghu darshan) will also be available for bookings online. Besides, the regular online quota for the remaining days -- the months of January and February  -- will also be released online.

TTD has suggested that devotees coming for Tirumala darshan must follow the Covid19 rules. Devotees must bring a certificate stating that they took two doses of Covid vaccination, or a Covid negative report done 48 hours before their darshan date.