Jio to develop app for TTD to book Tirumala darshan, accomodation

Jio, TTD board chairman Reddy said, has helped the temple authorities last month by resolving the technical issues hampering the online darshan ticket booking services.

Info-comm company Jio would help the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) to bring out an app encompassing darshan slots, accommodation booking and other services on the devotees' mobile phones.

An agreement for the purpose was signed between TTD officials and Jio representatives on Friday in Tirumala, in the presence of board chairman YV Subba Reddy. Jio, Reddy said, has helped the temple authorities last month by resolving the technical issues hampering the online darshan ticket booking services.

The TTD ticket booking website, operated with the help of IT major TCS, had faced technical hiccups as millions of devotees were simultaneously logging in to book the tickets being released in limited numbers because of the Covid-19 pandemic. TTD has then engaged the services of Jio, a Reliance group company, to sort out the issues faced by the devotees during the ticket bookings in July, August months.

Also Read | TTD faces flak for selling Tirupati temple tickets using Jiomart web domain

Though Jio had resolved the problem by offering its cloud technology and other IT services for free, TTD faced flak for operating the Lord Venkateshwara Swamy temple's special darshan tickets online booking portal through a Jio-mart web domain.

Reddy had clarified that devotees were redirected to Jiomart sub-domain from tirupatibalaiji.ap.gov.in website as the TTD sub-domain could not be created due to paucity of time, technical constraints. “From October month quota release onwards, jiomart will not appear,” the chairman said.

“Now, Jio has come forward to prepare a single stop app for all the TTD services and information,” Reddy said on Friday adding that the app could be launched on Vaikunta Ekadasi. “TCS has been providing free technical support to the TTD IT wing for the last five years. With Jio joining in, enhanced IT services can be provided to the devotees,” the chairman said.

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