With weekend, Pilgrim rush swells in Tirumala

Tirupati: The pilgrim rush swelled in Tirumala on Saturday forcing the devotees to wait for about 24 hours to have a glimpse of the Lord. Due to the consecutive holidays i.e. second Saturday and Sunday, the pilgrims started pouring in right from early morning resulting in the massive queue complex was soon full to the brim and later the huge waiting halls (sheds) in Narayanagiri Gardens were also packed with pilgrims leading to the queue line extending beyond Narayanagiri Gardens. Noticing the pilgrim rush picking up momentum, the TTD authorities

through the public address system appealed to devotees to join the queue on Sunday morning to avoid the inconvenience of standing on the line outside the queue complex where there are no facilities like in the queue complex or Narayanagiri Garden sheds.

Despite the repeated announcement, pilgrims with their families including women, children and aged were seen joining the queue extending it to a 2 km stretch outside the queue complex and reached Rambaghicha guest house area in the evening. Sources indicated that the waiting time may extend further as the influx of pilgrims would continue Sunday also much to the

inconvenience of devotees and recede only by Monday. The TTD on its part is striving its best to clear the maximum number of pilgrims and doing its best to provide the facilities like drinking water and food to the devotees waiting for darshan. The continuing of pilgrim rush bringing cheers to private transport operators operating between Tirupati and Tirumala and traders in and around railway station and bus stand in the pilgrim city.