In an attempt to meet the ever-growing requirements of the devotees visiting the Lord Venkateswara temple, the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) has laid its focus on augmenting the accommodation facilities in the temple town.
There are more than 7,500 cottages and guest houses available in Tirumala, sufficient enough to accommodate around 35,000 pilgrims a day. However, the available facilities have become inadequate owing to the steep increase in the average turnout of 75,000 pilgrims a day.
Now, the TTD is toying with the idea of demolishing massive choultries built some 60 to 70 years ago and build new structures equipped with modern facilities.
The TTD has already taken up repairs and refurbishment works to the cottages and guest houses with a budgetary outlay of hundreds of crores of rupees. However, complaints such as seepage of water and interrupted power supply keep pouring in.
The TTD has identified that hundreds of cottages built some 30 to 40 years ago lack proper frontal ambience and that the designs of the structures suited the requirements of the those times.
The TTD is considering demolishing three choultries —Sudarshan with 386 suites, Govardhan with 186 suits and Kalyani with 260 suites— in a phased manner and reconstructing new structures with modern facilities such as air-conditioned suites, Kalyanakatta, water geysers and parking areas.
“Letters of expression of interest have already been called for. So far, three construction companies have responded. Once the scrutiny process is completed, the designs will be finalised, estimates prepared and placed before the board of trustees for a final decision,” TTD Superintendent Engineer Mr. Jagadeeswar Reddy told The Hindu.
The TTD is contemplating undertaking the reconstruction works in a phased manner to prevent the accommodational woes of devotees. It is pursuing the proposal of vacating all the cottages allotted to its employees and government officers and staff.
