Sabarimala pilgrimage begins

State govt and Travancore Devaswom Board have made elaborate arrangements for crowd management especially in view of the chaos during last year's pilgrimage.

Thiruvananthapuram: The two month long pilgrimage of Sabarimala Ayyappa temple in Kerala began on Friday.

From the opening hours itself there was considerable rush of pilgrims.

A total of 70,000 pilgrims will be allowed through virtual queue and 10,000 through spot booking daily. The entire virtual ques slots till this month end are already fully booked.

The state government and Travancore Devaswom Board have made elaborate arrangements for crowd management especially in view of the chaos on many days during last year's pilgrimage. The temple will remain open for 18 hours a day, while it was only 16 hours last time.

Priests led by the temple tantri Kantararu Rajeevararu opened the sanctum sanctorum. Later Arunkumar Namboothiri, who was elected as the new chief priest ('Melsanthi'), took over.

The first phase of the pilgrimage is the mandala pooja which will end on December 26.

The second phase for Makaravilakku will be from December 30 to January 14.