Union Minister for Railways, Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal offered prayers at the Lord Venkateswara temple at Tirumala on Sunday.
Accompanied by his family members, the Minister arrived at the temple entrance to a ceremonial reception by Additional Executive Officer A.V. Dharma Reddy. The temple priests escorted him to the sanctum sanctorum with traditional honours. Later, the pundits showered Vedic hymns (Vedasirvachanam) on the Minister and presented him ‘Srivari Tirtha Prasadam’ and a laminated picture of Sri Venkateswara.
State Minister B. Rajendranath, newly-elected Tirupati MP M. Gurumoorthy, TTD board member and Government Whip Chevireddy Bhaskar Reddy and Deputy Executive Officer Harindranath were present.
Later, the Minister prayed at Sri Padmavathi Ammavari temple in Tiruchanur, where he was ushered in by the TTD Joint Executive Officer Sada Bhargavi.
Meanwhile, Mr. Gurumoorthy, accompanied by ZRUCC member P.C. Rayulu, represented to Mr. Goyal on the need to expedite development of the sixth platform in the Tirupati railway station, expansion of southern entrance, new train between Nellore and Chittoor via Tirupati, and recalled the long-pending demand for creation of a Balaji railway division headquartered at Tirupati. He also appealed to the Minister to launch superfast daily trains to New Delhi and Mumbai from Tirupati.
