The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) on Tuesday lifted curbs on the issuance of offline Slotted Sarva Darshan (SSD) tokens meant for common pilgrims and permitted them straight for the darshan of the deity.
Footfalls at the hill town, which were higher than usual over the past few days, peaked on Tuesday morning, with the darshan ticket counters at Tirupati witnessing jostling among the devotees.
Managing the rush became a difficult task for the TTD as the crowds kept swelling with time. As an immediate measure to ease the rush and bring the situation under control, the TTD allowed pilgrims into the Vaikuntam queue complex for darshan of the deity on a first-come-first-serve basis, the system which was in vogue during pre-COVID times. Devotees were last permitted to enter the Vaikuntam queue complex on March 20, 2020.
The TTD deployed security personnel along the queue lines and also asked the staff at the Nitya Annadanam complex to brace for the heavy rush.
It is not yet known whether the system of allowing devotees to travel without tokens to Tirumala is a permanent or an ad-hoc measure.
