TIRUPATI: Tens of thousands of devotees from across the globe vied with one another to obtain the slotted sarva darshan tokens (free darshan) issued by the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams for the Vaikunta Dwara darshan at the Tirumala temple which starts from Monday and ends on January 11.
In order to facilitate Vaikunta Dwara darshan for more number of common devotees, TTD had set up more than 90 counters at 9 different locations to issue more than 4.5 lakh slotted sarva darshan tokens to the visiting devotees for the 10-day period.
While the 90,000 SSD tokens for the first two days of the festival were availed by the devotees just within hours after the counters were opened on Saturday, SSD tokens quota till 5th of January were completely booked by the devotees by Sunday evening.
TTD sources said ticket issuance at these counters will go on continuously until the entire 4.5 lakh quota for the common devotees for the Vaikunta Dwara darshan is completely booked.
Meanwhile, TTD EO (FAC) Anil Kumar Singhal closely monitored the tickets issuance process throughout the day and directed the senior officials of the temple administration to ensure that the devotees are caused no sort of inconvenience while trying to book their SSD tokens.
On the other hand, TTD Chairman YV Subba Reddy inaugurated the Annaprasadam dining hall and served free food to the visiting devotees at the PAC-4 at Tirumala on Sunday.
