Siddipet: Authorities at the Sri Mallikarjuna Swamy Temple, Komuravelly are preparing to build queue lines on the lines of those at Tirumala to meet the needs of the increasing number of devotees of the temple.
The temple, which was receiving 25 lakh devotees every year, receives 30,000 to 40,000 devotees during the weekends of Brahmotsavams. Since the existing queue lines were not sufficient to accommodate devotees on weekends, the temple management decided to build an ultra-modern queue complex spending Rs 17 crore.
Temple chairman G Bikshapathi said the queue complex would have toilets, restrooms, drinking water and snack counters. The tenders have been called for the work already as the State government accepted the proposal. The temple management have also made the private shop owners vacate the place close to the Rajagopuram where the queue complex will come up. The 11 shop owners, who vacated, were given Rs 78.46 lakh as compensation by the temple management. The queue lines will be connected to the temple underneath the existing temple office.
Bikshapathi said the construction of the queue complex was part of their efforts to provide better facilities to devotees coming to the temple. Stating the devotees coming to the temple from long distances were forced to wait for long hours, he said the effort would provide a comfortable place to wait until their turn to have darshan of the presiding deity. The modern queue lines would also reduce the darshan time since everything would be put in a systematic way. After the construction of a host of reservoirs in Siddipet district as part of the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme (KLIS), the number of visitors has increased considerably in the district.
The temple management was expecting the devotee flow to go up in the days to come as Ranganayaka Sagar, Kondapochamma Sagar, Mallanna Sagar and Anantha Sagar reservoirs were being developed as tourist destinations.
Meanwhile, the temple management has also announced the income for the financial year 2022-23. The temple earned Rs 18.12 crore slightly improving from last year’s Rs 18.11 crore. While the Hundi collection was put at Rs 6.94 crore, the income through receipts was put at Rs 6.70 crore.