Pilgrim rush continues in Tirumala
Over 60,00 pilgrims had darshan of the presiding deity while thousands of devotees are waiting in the serpentine lines
TIRUPATI: The sacred hill town of Tirumala continues to reel under the impact of crowds thronging for the third consecutive day with waiting time for the darshan of the presiding deity stretching to beyond 40 hours, as on Sunday evening.
According to information available by 6 pm, over 60,00 pilgrims had darshan of the presiding deity while thousands of devotees are waiting in the serpentine lines, which are spilled outside the Vaikuntam complex and stretched to 4-5 km with starting point at Octopus building on the Outer Ring Road.
With the increase in pilgrim influx, the facilities in terms of accommodation and other services being provided by the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) are stretched beyond their limit. Though the TTD made elaborate arrangements for the sake of devotees, the prevalent hurdle that they are facing is the waiting time to have darshan, which was increased to 40 hours as on Sunday evening.
Despite the TTD's appeal to the infant parents and aged people to postpone their pilgrimage to Tirumala due to the heavy weekend rush coupled with a series of festive holidays, thousands belonging to these categories were seen coming for Darshan. Apart from the devotees of southern states, pilgrims from Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Gujarat, many newly-wed couples, also turned out in large numbers.
The top brass officials of engineering, health, annaprasadam, vigilance and medical departments of the TTD are seen continuously monitoring the queue lines overseeing the amenities to the devotees.
TTD JEO Veerabrahmam inspected the queue lines at various points and Vaikuntam complexes on Sunday and verified the amenities being provided to pilgrims at regular intervals.
The temple administration claimed that about 50,000 plus servings were made in main annaprasadam complex alone, while in Vaikuntam compartments, over 1.30 lakh servings (which includes both Annaprasadam and upma, Pongal etc.) were offered which is double the normal servings. Apart from this milk was also served to children.