Vaikunth Dwara Darshan in Tirumala from Jan 2-11: 80k to have darshan each day

(Our Special Correspondent)
Tirumala: With an aim to facilitate Vaikutha Dwara Darshan to more number of devotees, the TTD board on Monday has resolved to open the Vaikuntha Dwara Darshan for ten days, said TTD EO (FAC) Anil Kumar Singhal.
After inspecting the ongoing arrangements for Vaikuntha Dwara Darshan in Tirumala on Monday, Singhal said, earlier, since the Vaikuntha Dwara Darshan used to be only on Vaikuntha Ekadasi and Dwadasi, TTD could able to provide the Dwara Darshan to only limited number of pilgrims a day, though tens of thousands of devotees remain stranded waiting for over 30hours. But with this pilgrim friendly decision by the TTD board to open the Vaikuntha Dwaram for ten days, now we can provide darshan to nearly 80 thousand devotees each day, thereby facilitating almost eight lakh devotees to have Vaikuntha Dwara Darshan”, he observed.
The EO said the Vaikutha Dwara Darshan for devotees will be open between January 2 to January 11. To avoid long waiting hours, the TTD board has decided to allow the devotees with specified time slots to have hassle-free darshan.
In Tirupati, nine centres with almost100 counters would be set up and SSD tokens will be issued on January 1st to the devotees for Vaikuntha Dwara Darsanam.
Adding further the EO (FAC) said for the sake of devotees to have a smooth darshan without waiting, they are requested to come to Tirumala in their allotted time slots only. Due to limited accommodation, only those with tokens or tickets of darshan will alone be allotted accommodation in Tirumala on a first come first serve basis”, he maintained.”We give wide publicity to the devotees on darshan updates through TTD website, SVBC and other Media. The devotees are requested to plan their Tirumala visit based on the availability of tokens only. When we released 2lakh Special Entry Darshan tickets(Rs.300) on-line, they got booked within 44minutes. As many as 31 lakh hits were recorded to book SED tickets across the country, which clearly shows the demand”, he said.
All the departments in TTD including Annaprasadam, Health, and Transport etc. have been making elaborate arrangements for the upcoming Vaikuntha Dwara Darshan.
Earlier he inspected Krishna Teja Rest House Circle, Narayanagiri Gardens, and ATC Circle to verify the entry and gave necessary instructions to the officials concerned to make arrangements accordingly.
Additional EO (FAC) Veerabrahmam, CVSO Narasimha Kishore, CEO SVBC Shanmukh Kumar, CE Nageswara Rao, SE 2 Jagadeeshwar Reddy, GM Transport Sesha Reddy, Health Officer Dr Sridevi, Special Officer Annaprasadam Shastry, DSP Tirumala Venugopal and other officials were also present.