Sabarimala temple to be opened today for annual pilgrimage season

Sabarimala temple to be opened today for annual pilgrimage season

To ensure darshan for a maximum number of devotees, with a ceiling of 30,000 a day under the virtual queue system, 10 spot booking counters will start functioning in a couple of days.

Published: 15th November 2021 02:25 AM | Last Updated: 15th November 2021 02:25 AM |

The Lord Ayyappa temple here will be opened on Monday for the two-month annual pilgrimage season.

By Express News Service 15.11.2021

SABARIMALA: The Lord Ayyappa temple here will be opened on Monday for the two-month annual pilgrimage season. Melsanthi Jayaraj Potti will open the sreekovil at 5.30 pm in the presence of thantri Mahesh Mohanaru. Elaborate arrangements have been made by the authorities for devotees for darshan during the pilgrimage season within the limits of Covid protocol.

To ensure darshan for a maximum number of devotees, with a ceiling of 30,000 a day under the virtual queue system, 10 spot booking counters will start functioning in a couple of days. Devotees will have to produce either a vaccination certificate after having two doses or an RT-PCR certificate on arrival at Nilakkal along with virtual queue passes.

Devotees will be allowed for darshan from November 16 morning, the first day of the pilgrimage season, though the temple will be opened on November 15 afternoon. A total of 13.34 lakh devotees have booked under virtual queue for darshan till Sunday while about 2 lakh devotees cancelled the booking, Sabarimala devaswom executive officer Krishnakumara Warrier said. Regarding prasadam buffer stock, Krishnakumara Warrier said that the total stock of aravana prasadam was at 10 lakh containers and appam at 2 lakh packets as on Sunday.

He said steps have been taken to ensure the production of 2 lakh containers of aravana and 1 lakh packets of appam a day. The installation ceremony of the new melsanthi of Lord Ayyappa temple N Parameswaran Nampoothiri will be performed at 6pm on November 15. As part of the ceremony, the thantri will perform ‘kalasabhishekam’ on the new melsanthi.

After ‘kalasabhishekam,’ the thantri will pass on the ‘moolamantram’ of Lord Ayyappa to the melsanthi after leading him to the sreekovil. At Malikappuram Devi temple, the thantri will perform the installation ceremony of the new melsanthi Sambu Nampoothiri after the conclusion of the ceremony at Lord Ayyappa temple.

5 emergency med centres opened for pilgrims

T’Puram: Ahead of the Sabarimala pilgrim season, the health department has set up five emergency medical centres at Nilakkal, Pampa, Erumeli , Charalmedu (Ayyappan Road) and Sannidhanam. “People experiencing an increase in heart beat, breathlessness and chest pain shall take treatment at these centres. We have issued directives in different languages for the convenience of people from other states as well,” said Health Minister Veena George. The centres will start function on Monday. “Pilgrims facing fatigue have facilities to take rest at these centres.

They can also check blood pressure and get first aid. The medical centres are provided with sufficient medicines and have oxygen parlours that will function round the clock. They are equipped to deal with heart attack cases,” the minister said. Staff nurses deployed at the centre are trained to provide automatic external defilberator. The centre at Sannidhanam has an operation theatre for emergency cases. Ventilator facility is available at Pampa and Sannidhanam centres that are operated by specialist doctors from Medical Colleges.