The temple of Lord Venkateswara has seen low crowds since the second week of April.
Pilgrimage turnout, which was around 50,000 a day until the first half of April, dropped to just over 20,000 after the ‘Sarvadarshanam’ suspension on April 12, in an effort to curb the spread of the second wave of COVID-19.
According to statistics, the temple had registered more than 20,000 visitors for just five days in the last fourteen days. On the remaining days, the number of pilgrims was well below this mark. The number of visitors dropped dramatically to 9,640 on April 29 and to 6,431 on April 30.
Slash in tickets
The reasons for the decline in pilgrimage steps are said to have been reduced from 30,000 to 15,000 per day in the last week of March and then suspended.
The low turnout has had a direct impact on the income from the ‘Hundi’ temple, which is the main source of income for the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD).
The “hundred” income, which gradually rose to around 85 crore per month following the five-phase unlocking process announced by the central government, plummeted to around 2 crore per day since the second week of April.
According to statistics, the ‘hundred’ income had not exceeded the 2 crore mark for about 11 days in the past 14 days. In fact, the income did not even exceed 1 crore in three days. Net income was an all-time low of £ 62 on April 29th.
As things stand, TTD cut its online darshan ticket issuance for £ 300 special entry tickets from £ 30,000 per day to £ 15,000 per day from Saturday in fear of the second wave of the pandemic.
Surprisingly, the darshan tickets, which usually sell out within a few days of being released, are still available in sufficient numbers on most days of the current month.
On condition of anonymity, officials expressed concern about the sharp rise in COVID-19 positive cases across the country and feared that the financial position of the institute, which has been returned to normal, will become precarious again if the situation worsens.