Pathanamthitta: The Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) has decided against increasing the number of virtual queue slots for devotees visiting the Sabarimala temple. Instead, the TDB will allow all pilgrims arriving at the temple without advance booking to have darshan through spot booking.

The Devaswom Board took this decision after noticing that 12,500 – 15,000 devotees who booked slots on the virtual queue failed to turn up. The authorities said that the queue to climb the Pathinettampadi would extend up to Marakkoottam if the number of pilgrims touches 90,000 a day. On such days, the devotees would have to be blocked at Pampa, they added.

"Presently, 70,000 devotees are allowed to visit the shrine by virtual booking every day. If this number is increased to 80,000, the total number of pilgrims, including those utilising the spot booking facility, would cross 90,000, making the situation difficult to manage," said a TDB official.

As an alternative, the Devaswom Board will issue spot booking passes to all devotees arriving at Sabarimala. However, the authorities have not decided to increase the number of counters for spot booking.

More pilgrims arrive
Meanwhile, according to the Devaswom Board's data, 11.18 lakh pilgrims visited the temple on the first 14 days of the ongoing Mandala – Makaravilakku season. The opening 12 days of the shrine witnessed the arrival of 9.13 lakh pilgrims, which is 3.59 lakh more than the corresponding period last year. The highest number of devotees visited the temple on November 28 – 87,999 – of whom 15,514 came through spot booking.

Revenue goes up
The income at the temple through offerings by devotees also increased by Rs 15.89 crore during the first 12 days of this year's pilgrimage. While the temple had received Rs 47.12 crore in this period last year, this year it stands at Rs 63.01 crore.