Devotees are slowly and steadily pouring into the temple city for a darshan of Lord Venkateswara at Tirumala but the trend of thin crowd similar to the last three years continued.

The stretch between Dec 15 and Jan 15 is always considered ‘peak season’, with the auspicious ‘Dhanurmasam’ running concurrent, along with Vaikuntha Ekadasi, the English New Year and the Sankranti. Many Ayyappa devotees returning from Sabarimala make it a point to visit Tirumala on their way back home. Though the city should resemble a ‘sea of humanity’ by now, it was not so on Monday as only moderate crowd was witnessed in Tirupati and the Renigunta railway stations, the central bus station, the private bus stand for the Tamil Nadu services, the ‘Srinivasam’ and the ‘Vishnu Nivasam’ accommodation complexes.

Anticipating huge rush, the TTD had cancelled all Arjitha (paid) sevas and privilege darshan for January 1 and limited the ‘break’ darshan to protocol VIPs. The darshan slot for pedestrians, physically challenged and senior citizens was also withdrawn. Even the VIPs have not turned out in expected numbers. While the VIP darshan was scheduled to begin at 2 am on Tuesday, the darshan for common pilgrims was fixed for 4.30 am.