Tirumala temple records sharp drop in footfall, revenues due to Covid-19

According to the TTD authorities, around 2.63 lakh pilgrims had a darshan of the Lord between June 11 when it was thrown open for pilgrims and till July 10. “This is not even equal to the four days’ footfall of pilgrims during the normal days,” a TTD official said.

The Lord Venkateshwara temple on Tirumala Hill in Andhra Pradesh recorded a sharp decline in the number of pilgrims as well as revenue since it opened a month ago. The temple was closed on March 19 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

A view of Venkateswara Temple, on Tirumala hills, Andhra Pradesh(PTI File)

According to the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams authorities, around 2.63 lakh pilgrims had a darshan of the Lord till Friday, since June 11 when it was thrown open for pilgrims. “This is not even equal to the four days’ footfall of pilgrims during the normal days,” a TTD official said.

The daily footfall in the temple before its closure in March was around 65,000-70,000 during the normal days and nearly one lakh during Brahmotsavams (annual grand festival of the Lord) and other festival days.

The drop in the number of pilgrims has had a consequent effect on the revenue of the richest shrine in the country which has seen a substantial drop in the offerings by devotees in Hundi (a cash chest adjacent to the main temple, where devotees drop money).

“In the last one month, the collections from the Hundi was just Rs 15.80 crore. This is not even equal to the five day’s collections during the normal days. On an average, the temple used to get Rs 2.5 crore to Rs 4 crore a day during the normal days and during festival days, it used to exceed Rs 5-6 crore a day,” the TTD official said.

In fact, in its annual budget for 2020-21 presented in February this year, the TTD had projected an expected revenue of Rs 1,351 crore in the form of cash offerings by the devotees. The total revenue projected in the budget for the year was Rs 3,310 crore.

“The hundi collections in April and May were absolutely nil and were partial in March and June. If the Covid-19 situation continues like this for a few more months, the TTD revenues will be abysmally low,” the official said.

Andhra Pradesh endowment minister Vellampalli Srinivas who had the darshan of Lord Venkateshwara on Friday, said the TTD had been adopting a cautious approach in allowing pilgrims in the wake of Covid-19 pandemic. “In fact, even pilgrims are cautious. Although 12,000 tickets were issued for darshan every day, only 10,000 were opting for darshan,” he said.

The minister praised the temple authorities for the arrangements made to curb the spread of coronavirus infection, saying that fool-proof arrangements had been made at Tirumala for safe darshan of the Lord, as per the guidelines of the central government and the state government.

“Masks and social distancing of two meters was made mandatory for all pilgrims coming for the darshan. All the crucial locations of the temple, including queue lines, guest houses and dining hall were being regularly sanitised,” he said.

TTD trust board chairman Y V Subba Reddy said so far, there had been no complaints from the pilgrims with regard to darshan and other arrangements and there were no instances of any pilgrim with Covid-19 symptoms coming to Tirumala, because of stringent screening everywhere.

“Around 70 people in Tirumala tested positive, but none of them is a devotee. Majority of those who tested positive were security persons and other temple staff, who were immediately shifted to hospitals so that the virus does not spread to the pilgrims. All of them are healthy and recovering,” Reddy said.