Following state's go ahead, Tirupati temple to open from Monday

With the Jaganmohan Reddy government permitting the resumption of darshans, the TTD is planning to open the Tirupati temple for pilgrimage with safety and social distancing in place, starting next week.

However, as reported by DH earlier, only the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams employees and local Tirumala population would be allowed for darshan for the first few days under a pilot beginning on June 8.

“This helps us arrive at a secure mechanism of pilgrim management,” one official said.

In a communication to TTD on Monday, JSV Prasad, special chief secretary, revenue (endowments) stated that permission as accorded for a trial run for the TTD employees and local public of Tirumala, “with limited number of people duly ensuring physical distance of six feet between persons at all times and at all points.”

The memo, the senior official stated, is issued with the concurrence of the state’s health department. In relaxation of the COVID-19 lockdown restrictions, the central government has now allowed the states to open religious places like the temples, mosques, churches from June 8.

TTD officials had on May 12 written to the state government to allow them conduct limited darshans at the temple on an experimental basis.

The celebrated Hindu temple had been closed since March 20 due to the rise in the virus cases across the country. The temple used to attract about 75,000 pilgrims, on average, daily.

Nevertheless, officials are now preparing to limit pilgrim entry into the temple to around 300 per hour to maintain a six feet distance. The number is a major drop from the about 4000 pilgrims per hour earlier.

The TTD is understood to be devising a strategy wherein every pilgrim wanting to visit Tirumala temple has to have a prior approval from the authorities. “A devotee coming by public transport or his own vehicle would be allowed past the Alipiri check point when he produces the authorization chit,” a temple official told DH.