More than two months after it shut its doors for devotees owing to the coronavirus pandemic, the famous Lord Venkateswara temple at Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh is all set to open on June 8. The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), which administers the hill shrine, said all arrangements have been made for the reopening of the temple and issued a set of guidelines for darshan.
Devotees will be permitted to enter the temple between 6.30 am and 7.30 pm. Only 6,000 devotees will be allowed per day—500 devotees can have darshan in an hour. VIP break darshan will be organized every day between 6.30 am to 7.30 am.
On June 8 and 9, the darshan will be provided on an experimental basis only to the TTD employees and their family members who will have to book their slots on June 6 and 7. On June 10, the darshan facility will be extended to the local people.
The temple will open for general public on June 11. As many as 3,000 darshan tickets will be issued online at a price of Rs 300 while an equal number of slotted sarva darshan tickets will be issued at the SSD counters at Tirupati. The online booking will be open from June 8.
Devotees can also book their cottage at the time of booking tickets, but only two persons will be allowed to stay in one suite.
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Pilgrims coming from containment zones will not be allowed to enter the temple even if they have a valid ticket. Senior citizens above the age of 65 and children below 10 will also not be allowed inside the temple.
The Alipiri trekking route will be open from 6 am to 4 pm daily while no decision has been taken on Srivari mettu route.
Devotees will not be allowed to visit the sub-shrines inside the temple complex. Also, no theertham or satari will be provided.
The temple, which attracted around 80,000 to one lakh devotees on a regular day, shut its doors for public on March 20 in the wake of the novel coronavirus spread. However, all rituals are being conducted uninterruptedly by the priests.