TIRUPATI: Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) earned Rs 4 crore within hours of opening online booking of accommodation available on Tirumala hilltop. Devotees booked 43,000 rooms after temple administration released the online quota of accommodation for months of November and December on its official website on Monday.
According to officials, TTD had allowed online booking of accommodation only to those who had purchased Rs 300 special entry darshan tickets or booked slotted sarva darshan (free darshan) tickets.
“We have started online booking of rooms for the first time to prevent black-marketing of rental accommodation and reduce unnecessary queues,” a senior official observed. It is learnt TTD is sending reminders to devotees, who have already booked darshan tickets, to avail the remaining 7,400 rooms in case they require accommodation.
Meanwhile, TTD shifting online ticketing to cloud-based technology offered by Jio seems to be yielding good results for the temple body. The glitches that bothered devotees visiting devasthanams’ official website have become a thing of the past.
TTD earned Rs 21 crore last Friday when it released 7.08 lakh Rs 300 special entry tickets for darshan in November and December. Last Saturday, devotees across the country booked around three lakh darshan tickets in just 19 minutes.
