In a bid to tackle overcrowding at the Tirumala hills as well as please devotees across the country, the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) is planning to build Venkateswara temples at various places.
After recently opening an information centre at Amaravati, Maharashtra, the TTD is contemplating building a temple in Mumbai to cater to the needs of devotees from Maharashtra.
The temple may come up at Navi Mumbai, where the State government has agreed to provide land free of cost, or on a private chunk of land at Chembur, which has a good number of South Indian devotees.
‘Kalyanotsavam'
Another temple for the Lord of Seven Hills is planned on the sea shores of Kanyakumari. After the TTD performed the ‘Kalyanotsavam' at the peninsula's southernmost tip on a full-moon day last year, devotees have come forward with a proposal to build a temple there.
While the proposal to get a statue installed at Kurukshetra, Haryana, is yet to be finalised, the TTD has received another offer to get a temple consecrated at Gole Market in the heart of Delhi.
“These temples will satiate the devotion of the local populace and enhance manifold their affinity to the Lord,” TTD Executive Officer L.V. Subrahmanyam told The Hindu on Thursday.
Another plan is to do away with the guesthouse and rooms at the TTD's Chennai Information Centre in T. Nagar, Chennai, and retain it as a full-fledged temple.
Plans for Chennai
The rooms may be shifted either to the property on G.N. Chetty Road, which was donated by yesteryear actor Kanchana, or a huge complex in Royapettah, Mr. Subrahmanyam said.
With such measures, the TTD hopes the devotees will focus more on the local temples, thus making the turnout at Tirumala more manageable.
