ALL ARRANGEMENTS IN PLACE FOR BRAHMOTSAVAMS-TTD EO

INFORMATION AND RESCUE CELLS TO GUIDE PILGRIMS IN TIRUPATI-COLLECTOR

Tirumala, 14 September, 2015: The temple town of Tirumala has been geared up for the mammoth nine-day religious event of SRIVARI Salakatla Brahmotsavams scheduled from 16-24 of September, said, TTD EO Dr D Sambasiva Rao.

Addressing media persons in Annamaiah Bhavan at Tirumala on Monday evening after reviewing with district officials the EO said, on the first day evening, the honourable CM will offer silk VASTRAMS to Lord Venkateswara while on September 17, H.E. governor of AP Sri ESL Narasimhan will take part in the big fete. “We are all prepared for the mega event and with the co-ordination various district departments we will take forward the festival in a smooth way”, he asserted.

Briefing on the initiatives taken he said, this year we will be operating 482 buses in over 2200 trips while on Garuda Seva 512 buses will ply on Ghat road with an interval of every 20seconds operating 3500 trips. We have also kept four cranes and reserve drivers to meet any emergency. On Garuda SEVA day, the Srivari Mettu Ghat road will be kept open and a parking area for 400 vehicles has also been arranged near Srinivasa Mangapuram temple. The forest wing police will deploy special force for every 25 steps in this way. TTD and RTC will be operating three free buses each on this day from SRINIVASA Mangapuram temple to Srivari Mettu without break”, he added.

Adding further the EO said, “We have cancelled all Arjitha sevas, privileged darshans and only protocol VIPs are alone allowed for VIP break Darshan in limited numbers with an aim to enable more Darshan timings to common pilgrims. Annaprasadam, tonsuring, health services have been enhanced during this period in view of the pilgrim influx”, he said.

Later District Collector Sri Siddharth Jain said, special focus has been laid on sanitation at TIRUPATI. “We have set up Information and Rescue cells to help out the pilgrims. The RTO is also directed to check the fitness of vehicles to ply on Ghat roads and instructed to brief the taxi drivers also on safety travel. The Electricity department is also instructed to be prepared with additional power supply in the case of emergency. While enough water will be supplied to Tirumala through pumping from Kandaleru and Kailasagiri which will suffice next 80 days”, he maintained.

IG of Rayalaseema Sri Venugopala Krishna said, all the departments are working in unison with TTD to give the best possible services to multitude of visiting pilgrims. “With this team effort we are confident of making the event a grand success”, he added.

Tirumala JEO Sri KS Sreenivasa Raju said,this year every minute issue has been taken care of and the entry and exit points into galleries have been designed in such a way that the pilgrim is not put any sort of inconvenience”, he maintained.
The Urban SP Sri Gopinath Jetti briefed on the security system. “We have deployed special teams from the neighbouring districts and given instructions to them on pilgrim crowd management. As we have bifurcated the traffic route for RTC and private vehicles we are hopeful of positive outcome and even the pilgrim crowd management will also become easier”, he observed.Later he said, seven fire fighting vehicles have also been deployed to tackle any emergency situation.

CVSO of TTD Sri G Nagendra Kumar said, common command control room has been established to monitor minute to minute situation in Tirumala apart from installation of CC cameras in 29 entrances and 13 exit points in mada streets. “We have deployed 2800 security personnel apart from 150 home guards, 400 scouts and 100 Srivari sevakulu. Even we are utilising the services of NCC cadets”, he maintained.

DIG Sri Satyanarayana, Additional CVSO Sri Sivakumar Reddy, other department heads in district were also present.