The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) on Wednesday resolved to allow the devotees to change their scheduled date of darshan at the Lord Venkateswara temple. The decision was taken in view of the rapid spike in coronavirus infections.
Devotees who have booked their darshan tickets online between April 21 and May 31 can modify their scheduled date of darshan to any day before the year end.
The TTD has brought down the issuance of online darshan tickets from 25,000 to 15,000 a day since May 1. Despite the availability of about 1,65,000 online darshan tickets, a meagre of 68,864 pilgrims visited the hill shrine during the past 11 days. Only 2,262 devotees visited the temple on Tuesday when compared to the per day average of more than 75,000.
The highest footfall was recorded on May 2 when 10,824 devotees had darshan of the deity.
The low turnout of devotees has a telling effect on the collection from the temple hundi.
The average collection per day has come down to ₹11 lakh when compared to more than ₹2.75 crore in the pre-pandemic period. According to data available with the TTD, the hundi has generated a revenue of only ₹4.36 crore since the beginning of the month.