Unlock 1: Tirumala likely to see footfall of only 7,000 people a day from June 11

The world's richest temple- Lord Venkateshwara temple at Tirumala in Andhra Pradesh- will reopen for devotees on June 11. The temple was shut down on March 20 due to the coronavirus pandemic for the first time in over 1,700 years of its existence. 

A host of new guidelines have been put forth to ensure the safety of devotees. The temple which usually sees an average daily footfall of 50,000 to 70,000 will now be restricted to just 6,000 to 7,000 devotees in its initial days of reopening. At a given hour, only about 500 devotees will be allowed inside the temple.

The darshan will begin at 6.30 am and will go on till 7.30 pm every day. However, senior citizens above the age of 65 and children below 10 years of age will not be allowed. People coming from containment zones will be barred from visiting the temple.

"3,000 online darshan tokens will be released by the temple each day. Apart from this, 3,000 offline tickets will be issued at counters at the Alipiri checkpoint which is located at the entrance to the hill. Online bookings for darshan for the whole month of June will commence on June 8," said Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) trust board chairman YV Subba Reddy and executive officer AK Singhal revealed at a media interaction on June 5. 

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Every devotee will have to undergo thermal screening and a few of them will be taken for random COVID-19 tests. Masks have been made mandatory apart from six feet physical distance between devotees at any given point. VIPs who visit the temple will be given darshan for an hour from 6.30 am every day.

Every vehicle will be sanitised at the Alipiri checkpoint before being allowed to scale up the hill. Devotees who otherwise use the walkway to reach the hill shrine will not be allowed to do so as it will remain closed until further orders.

The TTD board is yet to take a call on running the tonsuring facility. Tonsuring is one of the important offerings by devotees visiting the Tirumala. 

The officials have requested devotees not to touch the Hundis (offerings boxes). Anna Prasadam (food) section will also see a limited number of devotees post the reopening. Laddu Prasadam counters will be changed every two hours and be sanitised on a timely basis.

The temple will conduct a trial run on June 8 and 9 with its employees. On June 10, locals in Tirumala will get an opportunity to have darshan. The temple administration has also decided to stop door delivery of laddus that was introduced recently. The temple began selling laddus at half its price for the last two weeks.

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