<p>The virtual queue facility that offers online booking for a “darshan” of Lord Ayyappa by devotees at their chosen time has helped reduce overcrowding at the hill shrine for the annual pilgrimage underway.<br /><br /></p>.<p>According to temple officials, till Thursday, 6.43 lakh devotees have booked through the system by logging onto www.sabarimalaq.com and the total hits received far exceeded the actual booking.<br /><br />“The steady increase in response shows that the devotees, especially those from far-off places, prefer to use the facility to avoid spending endless hours in queue,” a senior police official on duty at Sabarimala said. “Effective crowd management to ensure hassle-free “darshan” is the biggest challenge during the two-month-long pilgrimage. <br /><br />The virtual queue system has proved a great help to achieve this end,” the official said.<br />Police estimated the total bookings through the free service to go up to 20 lakh by the end of the pilgrimage season in mid-January, against 7.43 lakh bookings last year.<br /><br />Sabarimala VirtualQ Portal is developed and managed by the Kerala Police to help devotees create a slot by selecting a particular date and time for their pilgrimage. The search results show a calendar view of the month with the dates in green colour box, if slots are available.<br /><br />By clicking on the date, available slots for that particular day will be displayed on the right side and a devotee can choose a slot from the list. When a slot is booked, the pilgrim can take a printout of the coupon, also a copy will be sent to their email, officials added.<br /><br />On the selected time, they can arrive at the Pampa base camp and proceed directly without being in the queue till the “Nadapanthal” in front of the shrine uphill. <br /><br />The police will verify the coupon and photo ID of pilgrims to ensure that only the pre-registered pilgrims get into the dedicated queue.<br /><br />This will help devotees plan their pilgrimage on an advanced basis as per the availability of slots.<br /><br /></p>
<p>The virtual queue facility that offers online booking for a “darshan” of Lord Ayyappa by devotees at their chosen time has helped reduce overcrowding at the hill shrine for the annual pilgrimage underway.<br /><br /></p>.<p>According to temple officials, till Thursday, 6.43 lakh devotees have booked through the system by logging onto www.sabarimalaq.com and the total hits received far exceeded the actual booking.<br /><br />“The steady increase in response shows that the devotees, especially those from far-off places, prefer to use the facility to avoid spending endless hours in queue,” a senior police official on duty at Sabarimala said. “Effective crowd management to ensure hassle-free “darshan” is the biggest challenge during the two-month-long pilgrimage. <br /><br />The virtual queue system has proved a great help to achieve this end,” the official said.<br />Police estimated the total bookings through the free service to go up to 20 lakh by the end of the pilgrimage season in mid-January, against 7.43 lakh bookings last year.<br /><br />Sabarimala VirtualQ Portal is developed and managed by the Kerala Police to help devotees create a slot by selecting a particular date and time for their pilgrimage. The search results show a calendar view of the month with the dates in green colour box, if slots are available.<br /><br />By clicking on the date, available slots for that particular day will be displayed on the right side and a devotee can choose a slot from the list. When a slot is booked, the pilgrim can take a printout of the coupon, also a copy will be sent to their email, officials added.<br /><br />On the selected time, they can arrive at the Pampa base camp and proceed directly without being in the queue till the “Nadapanthal” in front of the shrine uphill. <br /><br />The police will verify the coupon and photo ID of pilgrims to ensure that only the pre-registered pilgrims get into the dedicated queue.<br /><br />This will help devotees plan their pilgrimage on an advanced basis as per the availability of slots.<br /><br /></p>