Pathanamthitta: The Lord Ayyappa temple in Sabarimala on Friday opened its portals to devotees for the two-month-long annual Mandalam-Makaravilakku pilgrimage season.

The hill shrine, nestled inside the deep forests of Pathanamthitta district, reverberated with the holy chants of Lord Ayyappa on Friday, the first day of the Malayalam month of Vrischikam.

Arrangements for smooth pilgrimage
State Devaswom Minister K Radhakrishnan said that all arrangements have been made for the smooth annual pilgrimage at the Ayyappa temple. Steps have been taken to ensure a safe and smooth pilgrimage for all devotees, and the support of advanced technologies has been used for the same, he said.

Queue control: A dynamic queue control system has been introduced this season to manage crowding at Sannidhanam, the temple complex. Apart from this, a video wall will also be set up at Nilakkal, Pampa, and Sannidhanam to inform devotees about the rush.

Edathavalams: Parking and other facilities arranged at 'edathavalams' -- resting places along the pilgrimage route -- for devotees. Devotees were requested to come in vehicles having fastags and that were not heavily decorated. The Kerala High Court has prohibited the plying of heavily decorated vehicles and the Travancore Devaswom Board was implementing a parking system which makes use of fastags.

Police force: Drones, CCTV cameras and 13,000 police personnel are some of the security measures in place to ensure a smooth, safe and happy pilgrimage to the Lord Ayyappa shrine at Sabarimala here for devotees. The security arrangements were announced by State Police Chief (SPC) Shaik Darvesh Saheb.

Arm-band scheme for children: An 'arm-band scheme' has also been implemented for the protection of children.

E-offering: The "E-kanikka (E-offering)" facility has also been made more comprehensive this year.

Health centres: Emergency health centres have been set up at 15 places on the route between Pampa and Sannidhanam.

Transport: The KSRTC has provided 200 buses for chain service in the Pampa-Nilakkal route. Low floor AC and non AC buses have have arrived at the site. Although there is a special service for the pilgrimage, KSRTC said that the Erumeli-Pamba ordinary service will not be shortened to Attamthod. Considering the demand of people in Naranamthod, Atthamod, Kanamala, Tulapally and Pambavali areas, the service will be available as usual at 7 am and 3.40 pm.

Control room: A control room is also being set up at Sannidhanam, Pampa and Nilakkal to coordinate disaster relief operations in an integrated manner. The Forest Department has been asked to ensure that the pilgrims are not affected by wild animal attacks.

Half-finished preparations
The hydraulic roof above the 18 steps that lead to the sanctum santorum is yet to be completed.The preparations of 19 emergency health centres are also in progress. The painting jobs of some building at Sannidhanam also needs to finished.