Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams  |  Photo Credit: IANS
Tirupati: With a decline in COVID-19 cases across the country which has resulted in a surge in the number of devotees visiting the holy shrine of Tirupati, the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) has decided to increase the number of Slotted Sarva Darshan (SSD) tokens and the tickets issued for darshan of Lord Venkateswara.
Between February 1 to 21, the number of devotees taking darshan at the Tirupati Devasthanam witnessed an almost 50 percent rise. While about 29,000 devotees visited the holy shrine on February 1, the number crossed 39,000 on February 21.
According to a report by The New Indian Express, the TTD is planning to bring back the number of devotees to pre-COVID-19 times. On Wednesday, the TTD is expected to release additional 13,000 tickets for the period February 24-28. 5000 offline SSD tokens will be released at various centers, including the Srinivasam Complex, Sri Govindaraja Swamy Choultries, and Bhudevi Complex.
Today, the management will also issue 25000 tickets in the Rs 300 category besides 20,000 SSD tickets for offline bookings – the report said. Since last week, the TTD has been issuing 15,000 offline sarvadarshan tokens per day.
The TTD is slowly returning to normalcy after being hit due to COVID-19 restrictions. With a slow increase in the number of devotees visiting Tirupati, the TTD has been making extra arrangements to accommodate additional visitors. When the number of devotees exceeds the daily quota of sarvasarshan tokens, the TTD issues tickets to devotees for the subsequent days.