Pathanamthitta: The Lord Ayyappa Temple at Sabarimala will open for Mandala Pooja festival on Friday (November 15). The month-and-a-half-long season will see the temple remain open till December 26.

As the temple opens on Friday evening, devotees will be allowed to enter Sannidhanam from Pamba from 1 pm, state police said in a release.

With the virtual queue bookings for November completely exhausted, the temple is expected to see huge during the period. While all slots have been booked between 15 and 29, only a few slots are open in the afternoon on 30.

Seventy-thousand people will get their time slots through the virtual queue system. Meanwhile, 10,000 devotees will have the opportunity for spot booking from Pampa, Erumeli and Vandiperiyar.

Those who have booked a virtual queue slot should cancel their booking if, for any reason, their trip is postponed or cancelled, temple authorities said. If not cancelled, they won't get another chance. In such cases, the cancelled slots will be switched to spot booking.

For spot booking, devoteees must present their Aadhaar card or a copy of it, voter ID or Passport. Seven counters have been set up at Pampa for this purpose. Accommodation facilities are available for 8,000 pilgrims at three locations at Nilakkal and for 7,000 people at Pampa.
The Travancore Devaswom Board is considering extending the darshan timings by 30 minutes to one hour during the Mandalam-Makaravilakku season if rush increases, said Devaswom Board President PS Prasanth. The current darshan timings during the Mandalam season are from 3 am to 1 pm and 3 pm to 11 pm.