Thiruvananthapuram: At least 800 young women have so far made bookings through the online site to offer prayers at the Lord Ayyappa Temple at Sabarimala during the upcoming annual pilgrimage season.

They have received the time of visit as well as KSRTC bus tickets through the Sabarimala digital crowd management system and KSRTC online booking site.

The highest number of young women who have booked darshan time are from Andhra. Apart from the South Indian states, several of the applicants hail from Delhi and Kolkata. They all have submitted their identity documents while booking.

However, the authorities have no idea how many of these women would turn up for the pilgrimage considering the strong protests witnessed in Sabarimala. Officials have received strict instructions not to make public details of the bookings done by women.

Sabarimalaq.com, the web portal also known as Sabarimala digital crowd management system, of the Kerala Police provides the facility to book KSRTC bus tickets from Nilakkal to Pamba along with the darshan time. The bookings can be done till January 19, 2019. The police had launched the portal on October 30. Devotees choosing only the darshan time may have to purchase the KSRTC bus ticket from the counters at Nilakkal to travel to Pamba. They can reserve the ticket through the KSRTC site also. But devotees taking a direct bus to Pamba from various places need not purchase the ticket from Nilakkal.

Only KSRTC buses will be allowed along the Nilakkal-Pamba route during this season. Devotees have to carry a print of the ticket. Round trip tickets having a validity of 48 hours are issued to devotees. The non-AC bus fare for the Nilakkal – Pamba – Nilakkal trip is Rs 80 and for AC bus, it is Rs 150. As many as 11.40 lakh tickets have been sold through KSRTC’s online facility till now. Authorities estimate that at least 2.50 crore devotees would use KSRTC’s services this year, compared to 36 lakh last year.

When a booking is done on www.sabarimalaq.com, a digital queue coupon will be generated which can be exchanged for a digital queue entry card. The card will display the date of darshan and devotees will be allowed to move past Pamba based on this information. Facilities for pilgrims will be provided only for those holding this card, which will be given a special colour.

Officials on duty at Marakkoottam will be instructed to allow only those pilgrims holding this card to proceed to Sannidhanan along the Chandranandan Road. The counterfoil of the card will be collected at Sannidhanam to block its misuse. Ten centres for checking the card will be opened near Ganapathy Temple. More checking spots are planned at Sannidhanam, Marakkoottam and Pamba. Nine sub-inspectors and 82 other police officials will manage the digital queue. They will be deployed by the ADGP in charge of SCRB (State Crime Records Bureau).

Authorities estimate that the number of pilgrims using the virtual queue system of the police would double this year from last year’s figure of 16 lakh. A link for online booking is available on the police websites of Tamil Nadu, Andhra, Telangana, Karnataka and Puducherry also.

Chennithala expresses concern over facilities

Chennithala writes to Pinarayi

Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala Wednesday shot off a letter to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, expressing concern over pending infrastructural works at Nilackal and Pamba, en route to the hill shrine.

In his letter, Chennithala alleged that the government had 'miserably' failed to ensure even basic facilities during the annual Mandala-Makaravilakku season, which starts on November 17.

He also pointed out that the facilities, which were destroyed after the August deluge, had not yet been refurbished.

The Opposition leader listed out 19 points in his letter which, according to him, requires special attention and needs to be resolved and said that the repair works on the roads to Sabarimala were moving at a slow pace.

"Since there is delay in clearing the pending bills to the contractors, they are yet to take up major repair works.

Also Punalur, Muvattupuzha, Chalakkayam routes are in a bad state and causes heavy traffic congestion," he alleged.

He also alleged that the drinking water facility at Pamba was yet to be restored.

"The pipelines which got damaged in the floods are yet to be replaced. Drinking water facilities are yet to function effectively," Chennithala alleged.

After Pamba, which was the base camp of Sabarimala, was ravaged in the floods, the state government had decided to implement its earlier master plan and make Nilakkal the base camp.

The Kerala Water Authority (KWA) has said that it has made all necessary arrangements to make available drinking water at Nilakkal, which is the base camp.

"Facilities have been arranged to distribute 65 lakh litres of drinking water every day," KWA said in a release.

It also said that 12 water dispensers have been already installed and there will be 128 water kiosks.

(With inputs from IANS)