The Tourism Department will construct a guest house, Punyadarshanam Yatrinivas, at the Sabarimala Sannidhanam.
Talking to The Hindu , Raju Abraham, MLA, said the proposed guest house was aimed at accommodating VVIPs and VIPs coming to Sabarimala from different parts of the country and abroad.
Mr. Abraham said at present the Devaswom Guest House was the only facility at the holy hillock to accommodate the VIPs visiting Sabarimala.
It had only a few rooms that had already been allotted to the Travancore Devaswom Board president, members, and top board officials.
During the visit of VVIPs having Z-category security, the authorities used to vacate these VIP rooms to accommodate the former.
The MLA said his representations for a government guest house at Sabarimala and Pampa had not yielded the desired results. However, the Tourism Working Group meeting on August 29 decided to construct the facility at the Sannidhanam on the basis of a representation of the MLA.
Mr. Abraham said the proposed guest house would have 24 furnished rooms which could provide accommodation to not less than 50 people, a conference hall with state-of-the-art facilities, a dining hall, and a pilgrim facilitation centre.
G.Mahesh, chief architect of the Chennai-based consultants of the Sabarimala master plan Pithavadian and Partners, prepared the design of the guest house that was estimated to cost ₹5 crore, Mr. Abraham said.
The facility would be constructed near the inspection bungalow of the Forest Department and be ready for commissioning before the beginning of the Mandalam-Makaravilakku pilgrim season in November 2018, he said.
