e-tickets for 'Sheegra Darshan' on Tirumala TIRUMALA: Here is a good news for pilgrims opting for the Rs 300 'Sheegra Darshan' tickets. The TTD will make available these tickets through the internet from Wednesday, apart from the regular counter sales.
Thus, one can now book these tickets sitting at one's house. The TTD has decided to release 5,000 tickets a day from Wednesday. While, 2,500 of these tickets will be made available though the Internet, the remaining 2,500 tickets will be sold through the nine select TTD 'edarshan' counters. All these 5,000 tickets will be released from Tirumala every day at 9 AM.
Announcing this to newsmen here, TTD Executive Officer MG Gopal and Joint EO (Tirumala) KS Srinivasa Raju said: ``On a trial basis, the TTD is going to release 5,000 tickets every day from Wednesday and the pilgrims buying these tickets can have 'darshan' on the seventh day after the purchase of the tickets.
For instance, those getting the Rs 300 ticket on Wednesday (August 20), will have to arrive at Tirumala for 'darshan' on August 27. ``But, this is all on a trial basis and the decision has been taken following the instructions of the state government to reduce the waiting time of the pilgrims. If the trial proves successful, the TTD will release 18,000 'sheegra darshan' tickets every day in three spells,' they added.
Maintaining that steps were on to strengthen the 'e-darshan' counters at all TTD information centres, the official duo said: `Presently, we are issuing these tickets from just nine centres in both the Andhra Pradesh and Telangana states. Out of all the 2,500 tickets which will be sold through the TTD 'e-darshan' counters, as many as 850 tickets will be sold through the 'e-counter' in Hyderabad.
The ticket quota at the remaining 'e-darshan' counters will be: Visakhapatnam - 675 tickets, Vijayawada - 350, Kurnool - 100, Tirupati - 200, Nellore - 100, Nizamabad - 75, Warangal - 75 and Anantapur - 75. The remaining 2,500 tickets will be sold through internet'.
'All these ticket holders will be given time slots between 2 pm and 3 pm and they should report at the entry point according to the given time. The right of entry will automatically get forfeited if they do not report before the expiry of the time of admission indicated on the ticket'.
'For group ticket holders, all the pilgrims mentioned in the ticket have to report collectively at a time', they added. They said that the pilgrims had to strictly adhere to the 'traditional dress' code.
The ticket-holders should also bring at least two copies (printouts) of the confirmation tickets along with the original proof of ID of all persons and produce one of them at the Vaikuntam Queue Complex-1 for verification before entry for 'darshan' and the other one while collecting the 'prasadam', the officer duo explained.
The EO concluded by saying that the TTD reserved the right to cancel the 'sheegra darshan' facility whenever warranted by special circumstances. Deputy EO of the temple Chinnamgari Ramana was also present at the news conference.
News Posted: 20 August, 2014
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