Kochi: Police has increased virtual queue slots for Sabarimala pilgrims to 18 lakh this season from 13.5 lakh last time.
“The trend had shown there's an enormous demand as six lakh slots were taken since the booking commenced on October 19. We plan to accommodate more pilgrims across 14 time slots that the pilgrims can choose daily. There is more chance for pilgrims to get slots as per their opted time and date,” a Kerala police officer managing the portal said.
The free web-based service enables the pilgrims to reserve their place in the queue at a specified hour on any day when the shrine is open, on a ‘first-come, first-served basis’.
Besides saving time for pilgrims, the Virtual Q coupon facility acts as a crowd management tool. “Last season, though 13.5 lakh pilgrims booked slots, only 12 lakh utilised the service. Similarly in 2013-14, only 8.57 lakh made use of it,” he said.
Meanwhile, there were charges of irregularities in room allocations at Sannidhanam by the Travancore Devaswom Board.
“Go to online booking site sabarimalaaccomodation.com, the ‘online booking’ section shows availability of 100 rooms from November 17 to 27. However, upon clicking the “booking” option, the message appears as “full”.
The reservation status shows rooms are all reserved, including for November 28 even when booking is now allowed only up to November 27. I faced no such issues last time,” said Raveendran Nair K. S., a Perumbavoor native, who got a virtual queue slot easily but could not book a room at Sannidhanam despite repeated attempts.
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