Thiruvananthapuram: The Travancore Devaswom Board (TBD) has decided to discontinue its longstanding practice of preparing aravana (sweetened rice offering) a month ahead of the pilgrimage season at Sabarimala. Instead, the Board will now produce and sell fresh aravana based on daily demand, utilising the enhanced capacity of its production plant.

Aravana is the highest revenue-generating prasadam (offerings) at Sabarimala, with sales during the last pilgrimage season reaching Rs 200 crore. The current daily production capacity of the plant is 2.7 lakh tins, while sales can reach up to 3.25 lakh tins a day.

According to Board president P S Prasanth, the plant will be modernised at the cost of around Rs 4 crore before the upcoming Mandala-Makaravilakku pilgrimage season. The aim is to raise the daily production to 3.5 lakh tins.

Traditionally, aravana production begins a month ahead of the pilgrimage, which starts by mid-November. The Board usually keeps a stock of at least 40 lakh tins. This early production requires the hiring of around 200 temporary workers whose wages, accommodation, and food expenses will now be avoided, thanks to the increased efficiency of the upgraded plant.

Currently, appam and aravana are transported from the plant to the counters in Malikappuram by tractors. However, the Kerala High Court has directed that tractor movement in Sannidhanam be stopped. Based on this directive, the Board has begun work on a conveyor belt system to transport appam and aravana directly from the production plant to the counters. An estimate of Rs 5 crore has been prepared for installing the conveyor belt, which will deliver 500 tins of aravana per minute through two trays.