India / Tirupati Balaji Temple to reopen on June 8, masks mandatory for devotees

New Delhi: After a gap of two months, the famous hill shrine of Lord Venkateswara at Tirumala will reopen from June 8, Monday, however, local devotees will be permitted from June 11. The development comes days after the Centre began unlock-I. Under the guidelines issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs, it is proposed to allow places of worship to reopen from June 8.

Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD), which manages the world’s richest temple, said that for the first three days (June 8,9 and 10), its employees will be allowed enter the temple premises. The temple will be thrown open for darshan by other devotees on June 11 but with a number of restrictions.

Here are the rules for entering Tirupati Balaji temple:

It will be mandatory for all devotees to wear face masks and maintain six feet physical distance from each other.

To avoid overcrowding and ensure social distancing, only 6,000 to 7,000 devotees would be allowed per day from 6:30 AM to 7:30 PM.

About 500 devotees will be accommodated per hour. On regular days, nearly 60,000 to 70,000 people offer prayers inside the temple per day.

People above 65 years and children below 10 years will not be allowed into the temple. There will also be no entry for people coming from containment zones.

Every devotee will be subjected to thermal checking and some would be picked for random COVID-19 tests.

VIP darshan will be allowed from June 11 for one hour – 6.30 a.m. to 7.30 a.m.

The walkway to the hill shrine will remain closed for some days.

Devotees will get Herbal sanitisers. They will be requested  not to touch the Hundis (boxes for offerings).

The Anna Prasadam (food) section will have a limited number of devotees.

Speaking to reporters, TTD Executive Officer AK Singhal said,”3,000 darshan tickets will be sold online every day. Such devotees will be screened at Alipiri, the starting point of the hill route. Online tickets for the entire month of June will be sold on June 8. Another 3,000 offline tickets will be issued at the counters at Alipiri check point every day.”