Heavy Rush at Tirumala

TIRUMALA: With the swelling pilgrim rush, the waiting period for the darshan of Lord Venkateswara went beyond 10-12 hours on Friday as tens of
thousands of Ayyappa devotees made a beeline to the Lord's abode here.

Both the queue complexes were chock-a-block with devotees and the queue lines spilled on to the roads up to a stretch of 2 kms. Sources said the pilgrim influx heightened with Ayyappa devotees swarming the temple town after witnessing the `Makara vilakku' ritual in Sabarimala on Pongal day.

Long queue lines were seen near Kalyanakatta, Annadanam complex, Papavinasanam and Akasaganga also. Sources said the TTD has made elaborate arrangements to see that no pilgrim gets exhausted during the waiting period. The temple management supplied food packets and water at regular intervals to the pilgrims waiting in queue lines and supplied milk to the children.

After having faced flak for their mishandling during Vaikunta Ekadasi when the common pilgrims were put to severe test, the TTD management resorted to `Maha laghu darshan' to clear the pilgrims inside the sanctum sanctorum. The heavy pilgrim turnout is expected to continue till Sunday.

Meanwhile, 10 Ayyappa devotees were hurt when their taxi heading towards Kumbakonam in Tamilnadu collided against a van near Mamandur, 30 kms from Tirupati, on Friday noon. The accident occurred when the taxi driver in a bid to overtake a lorry collided against the van carrying pilgrims from Mahbubnagar. The injured have been admitted to Ruia Hospital.
(Source TOI)