The Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) has made elaborate arrangements at its temples to ensure physical distancing and compliance of various other lockdown guidelines when the temples will be thrown open to devotees after a long gap of 77 days on Tuesday.
The Temple advisory committees and TDB officials supervised the cleaning work at various temple complexes across the district on Monday.
Murli Malayalappuzha, temple advisory committee president of the famous Bhagavathy temple at Malayalappuzha near here, told The Hindu that flow of devotees to the temple complex would be streamlined and regulated as per the guidelines prescribed by the government.
Spots have been marked on the floor for the devotees to wait in queue, keeping definite physical distance, there by avoiding contact. Mr. Murali said the entry of devotees to the temple complex from outside too would be monitored to avoid crowding or grouping together of people.
The practice of distributing ‘theerthom’ (holy water) and kalabhom (sandal paste) too would be discontinued with as per the directives issued by the State government as a preventive measure against COVID-19, he said.
Intensive cleaning drive was taken up at the temple complexes of the Thiruvalla Sreevallabha Temple, Aranmula Sree Parthasarthy Temple, Chenganur Mahadevar Temple and at the Kaviyur Mahadevar temple on Monday.
Devotees who wish to visit the temple during the period will have to register their names online through the virtual queue system of the Kerala Police.