Nellore: Over the last seven days, 7.15 lakh pilgrims enjoyed the celestial darshan of Sri Venkateswara Swamy as part of the ongoing Srivari Navaratri Brahmotsavams in Tirumala, said Tirumala Temple Deputy EO Harindranath.
Addressing mediapersons at the Media Centre in Ram Bagicha 2 Rest House on Wednesday, the Deputy EO said that to give preference to a common devotee-oriented Sarva darshan, TTD had slashed the VIP break darshan, '300 special entry darshan and cancelled all Arjitha sevas during the ongoing Brahmotsavams.
“Advance preparedness had facilitated the darshan of the Lord inside and also the darshan of Vahana sevas in a smooth manner,” he said.
He said that except for the period of rituals, rest of the time was earmarked for common devotee darshan. The Temple Deputy EO said that nearly 7.15 lakh devotees had taken darshan during the last seven days of Brahmotsavams.
During the Salakatla Brahmotsavams in September, around 85,000 devotees had darshan on Garuda Seva Day (September 17).
For Garuda seva, during Navaratri Brahmotsa-vams on October 14, over one lakh people had the darshan of the presiding Lord. In the last seven days, 24.36 lakh laddus were sold to the pilgrims.
Parakamani Deputy EO V. Damodaram said that during the ongoing Srivari Navaratri Brahmotsavams, the Srivari Hundi collections touched '16.14 crores in seven days as against '16.28 crore collected during the Salakatla Brahmotsavams in September.
“The Hundi collections were counted and segregated with the assistance of countless Parakamani volunteers and deposited in the banks,” he said.
Among others, TTD PRO Dr. T. Ravi and Srivari Temple Peishkar Ramesh Babu and Potu Peishkar Sri Nagaraju also participated.
Meanwhile, the Engineering Department of the TTD had spent '890.35 lakh and took up all civil and electrical works during the twin Brahmotsavams and successfully made hassle free arrangements.
TTD Chief Engineer Chandrasekhar Reddy, SE-2 Ramachandra Reddy and SE (Electricals) Venkateswarlu said that while civil works worth Rs 465.45 lakh were accomplished, Rs 424.90 lakh were spent on electrical works during the twin Brahmotsavams in 2018.
They said that the Engineering Department took up setting up of barricades for parking lots to facilitate parking of four-wheelers, built 15 toilet blocks in the galleries of Mada streets, made arrangements for photo and flower decorations, besides repairs to vahanams, rathams, Srivari float and Gatatopanam, queue lines and filled up Swami Pushkarini with 10 million litres of filtered water. About 33 LED screens were erected - 21 on Mada streets and rest in various locations of Tirumala starting from PAC 2 to VQC 2, to view SVBC live telecast of Vahana Sevas.
