The Sri Venkateswara Swamy Vaari Temple in Tirupati is going to allow free darshan to devotees again. Taking note of the decline in the number of Covid-19 cases in the state, the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) has decided to resume free darshan at the temple from Thursday, 9 September 2021.
After a Covid-19 outbreak at the temple in April with multiple members of temple staff testing positive, the temple authorities had decided to close the temple for free darshan. During this time, paid darshan continued at the temple with TTD adopting strict Covid-19 protocol and only allowing online bookings.
Naturally, due to the ongoing Covid-19 situation, TTD has imposed certain restrictions in order to ensure a safe darshan for all devotees coming to the temple. In the beginning, only 2,000 devotees would be allowed for free darshan everyday at this hill temple. It has also been announced that only devotees from Chittoor District will be allowed to avail free darshan for the time being. Unless any mishaps occur, TTD is expected to offer free darshan soon to other devotees in the state as well. The booking counters opened at 6 AM on Wednesday.
Last month, the Andhra Pradesh Endowments Department had taken the decision to allow free darshan again at all the temples in the state. This decision was taken after reviewing the Covid-19 situation and taking into consideration multiple requests from devotees to allow free darshan at temples. With the Tirupati temple taking this move, other TTD temples in the state are expected to follow suit, including the newly-constructed TTD temple in Visakhapatnam.
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