Tirupati Sarva Darshan Tokens Stopped

Tirupati Sarva Darshan Tokens Stopped Temporarily due to the heavy crowd in Tirumala.

Tirumala, 22 May 2018: The issuance of Sarva Darshan tokens will be suspended temporarily at Tirumala while it will continue as usual in Tirupati, in view of unprecedented summer pilgrim rush at hill town, said Tirumala JEO Sri KS Sreenivasa Raju.

Addressing media persons at Annamaiah Bhavan on Tuesday after a review meeting with senior officers, the Tirumala JEO said, the hill town is currently witnessing unprecedented crowd with the announcement of results of entrance exams last week.

“There has been the large number of absentees among slotted Sarva darshan ticket holders, which is leading to extra pressure in the queue lines and darshan hours at the temple”, JEO observed.

He said the soft launch of Slotted Sarva Darshan (SSD) was made on April 28th and full operation began from May 3. Till May 21, nearly 5,43,308 devotees had obtained Slotted Sarva Darshan tokens but only 4,02,011 had utilised it for darshan.

He said the absenteeism in SSD was recorded at 24% as against 7% each among Divya Darshan (Pedestrian) and Special darshan (Rs.300) ticket holders.

The Tirumala JEO said, 2/3 of devotees are taking SSD tokens at Tirumala and only 1/3 in Tirupati.

He appealed to the devotees, that Tirumala yatra could be more pleasant and hassle-free if the devotees avail the SSD tokens at Tirupati itself rather than trying for such tokens at Tirumala.

 For the benefit of devotees, the Sarva Darshan queues will be commenced from the Lepakshi circle with immediate effect, he added.

The JEO said the TTD has utilised all media like public address system, FM Radio, handouts, Flexi Banners, signboards and also word of mouth through TTD staff and Srivari Sevakulu for spreading awareness about the new system of SSD tokens. But still lot of publicity is required, he opined.