After days of unending traffic snarls and chaos, Sabarimala pilgrims who reached Nilackal and Pampa on Wednesday were greeted by scenes of smooth traffic and order.
Although the inflow of pilgrims remained the same as in the previous days, the rapid measures introduced by the authorities have eventually succeeded in bringing the desired results. A vast majority of the pilgrims, who had been stuck on the roads and in the queues along the trekking path, completed the pilgrimage and returned.
At the same time, those who made their way to the hillock during the day needed to wait in queues along the trekking path to reach Sannidhanam from Pampa. As per estimates, 50,162 people visited the temple through the virtual queue on Wednesday till 6 p.m. The number of people who reached Sannidhanam the previous day was 90,889.
RTC services
The Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) chain bus services between Nilackal and Pampa operated without troubles. With more police and KSRTC officials on duty, the scenes of devotees jostling for space inside buses were also missing at Nilackal.
“An average of 65 services operated every hour and although each of these buses was packed to capacity, the rush was well under control,’’ said Sunil Kumar, KSRTC special officer, Pampa. The previous day, it had operated as many as 2,300 round trips to and from Nilackal and Pampa.
The curbs introduced on the onward journey of pilgrims from Idathavalams (stop-over points) too have been lifted. The parking grounds at Nilackal, which overflowed with vehicles till recently, were adequate to accommodate the vehicles that reached the location during the day.
As the crowd that had overwhelmed the pilgrimage zone began to disperse, the sanitation drive at these locations too picked up momentum.
Minister visits
Devaswom Minister K. Radhakrishnan visited the pilgrimage zone in the evening and reviewed the crowd management measures in place. Talking to media persons, the Minister attributed the rush that Sabarimala had witnessed over the past few days to a rise in the number of children and elderly among the pilgrims. “At least 30% of the devotees this time comprised aged people and children and this slowed down the movement of devotees,” he said.
According to the Minister, the temple recorded the season’s biggest rush on December 7. “This was not the first time that the hill temple witnessed such an influx. Those days, however, passed off rather peacefully in the absence of attempts to spread unwarranted concerns,’’ he said.
V. Ajith, District Police Chief, Pathanamthitta, said 1,350 policemen had been deployed at Sannidhanam in three shifts. The number of police personnel on duty at Pampa and Nilackal was 600 and 450, respectively. The actual number of deployments is the same as the previous season, he said.
