Sabarimala: In an effort to manage the heavy rush of pilgrims, authorities have decided to cap spot booking at Sabarimala to 20,000 people per day. At present, more than 30,000 pilgrims are arriving through spot booking, making crowd control increasingly difficult. Those who arrive after the limit is reached will be allowed darshan the following day, officials said.

To ease the flow, seven additional booking centres will soon begin operations at Nilakkal. Pilgrims will be permitted to enter the Nadapanthal only as queues at the Sannidhanam clear.

To support the increased footfall, arrangements are being made to provide drinking water, light snacks, and chukku kaapi. Around 200 additional staff have been deployed at the queue complex, and Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) president K. Jayakumar announced that 200 more employees will be brought in specifically for toilet cleaning.

Nearly 2 lakh pilgrims have completed darshan

A total of 1,96,594 pilgrims have completed darshan so far for the Mandala-Makaravilakku festival season.

After the temple opened at 5 pm on Sunday, 53,278 pilgrims visited.

On Monday, the count rose to 98,915. By 12 noon on Tuesday, another 44,401 pilgrims had completed their darshan.

Currently, darshan is permitted for 70,000 people through the virtual queue and 20,000 through spot booking.