The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam’s e-darshan online booking counter opened to provide darshan bookings and cottage bookings has been closed down at TTD Kalyana Mandapam in Karimnagar since Wednesday causing serious inconvenience to the pilgrims visiting the temple shrine.
Pilgrims who visited the TTD e-darshan counter to book darshan tickets and cottages were in for a shock as the office was closed. Those planning to make a visit to Tirumala during summer holidays are worried over the closure of online booking counter.
To help the devotees visiting TTD for darshan bookings, the temple authorities had introduced an e-darshan counter here in August 2004. Since then, the pilgrims had easy booking of darshan and cottages well in advance.
Overwhelming response
When the counter was opened, it saw an overwhelming response in the town with the daily income ranging from ₹30,000 to ₹40,000. Taking into account the huge rush at the e-darshan counter, the Railways had also introduced a special biweekly train from Karimnagar to Tirupati.
In all, there were a total of 11 e-darshan counters in Telangana State. The TTD authorities closed down all the counters except in Hyderabad, Khammam and Hanamkonda. The reason for closing down the counters is unknown to even those manning them.
Ramesh, a system operator at the counter, said online bookings were slow since Monday following a technical problem. “On Tuesday, it was a holiday, so we did not open the counter and on Wednesday, when we opened the counter, the server was completely down and the authorities told us that they were closing down the counters,” he added.
Vittal Rao, a teacher, who visited the counter on Thursday, was shocked to see the closed office. “I came here to book darshan tickets and accommodation at Tirumala and plan my visit accordingly. But the closure of the counter is disappointing and it will cause inconvenience to the people of the district visiting the TTD,” he said.
Another devotee Badraiah said, “We will not allow the closure of e-darshan counter in Karimnagar and fight for it. We will approach the court”.
