Enormous crowds at Tirupathi! Darshan of the Lord takes more than 30 hours!
Posted on: 16/Aug/2014 2:25:31 PM
With 5 successive holidays this weekend, there is a a vast gathering of devotees visiting Tirupathi.
There have been surging crowds since Thursday, 14th August Morning. Thousands of devotees gathered have arrived reaching either by foot or in different conveyances. The crowd got swollen since yesterday.
The 31 rooms at ‘Vaikuntam Centre’ for free Darshan were full since 4.00 PM yesterday evening. The length of the queue of waiting devotees exceeded 4 km. It took more than 30 hours for the devotees to have Darshan of the Lord.
The devotees who came by feet for ‘Divya Darisanam’ also had to wait for 30 hours to have a Darshan.
With the swelling crowds, Rs. 300/- ticket issue was closed. The devotees who intended to buy Rs. 300/- ticket had thus to join the free Darshan devotees which swelled the crowd.
Since the last 3 days were auspicious days for conducting marriages, more than 1000 marriages were performed in Tirupathi. With the marriage parties adding to the visiting crowd for Darshan, the crowd increased further which meant more waiting time.
As the gathering was devotees were quite large, ‘Annadhanam’ officials and servants provided the devotees with food, snacks, milk, and buttermilk.
TTD officials took all necessary steps to ensure minimum disturbance for the swellinjg crowd.
With Janmashtami or Krishna Jayanthi (Lord Krishna’s birthday) falling on Sunday, 17th August, there will 4 successive holidays on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. The board officials expected more devotees during this period.
With the swelling crowd of devotees, there are no rooms available to stay. They have to wait in long queues even to get the rooms. During nights, the devotees spend & sleep in the different spaces available.
With the surging crowds of devotees, VIP Break Darshan was stopped yesterday.
Rs. 300/- tickets were resumed today (16th August) by 7.00 AM.
