Thiruvananthapuram: The number of pilgrims visiting Sabarimala daily will be restricted to 90,000 in light of the increase in footfall at the famed Lord Ayyappa shrine.
The decision was taken at a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
The 'darshan' timings (time for viewing the sanctum sanctorum) have also been extended by an hour. The sanctom sanctorum, which currently opens at 3am, closes at 11pm.
The parking facility at Nilakkal will also be improved to accommodate more vehicles.
It was also decided that a high-level meeting including the Devaswom Minister will be convened every week to evaluate the situation.
The Kerala High Court on Sunday asked the police and temple authorities to take steps for crowd management and control of vehicular traffic to ensure smooth 'darshan' for pilgrims.
The court had also asked the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) to increase darshan timings to accommodate the huge crowd.
With the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions, devotees have turned up in huge numbers this year at Sabarimala in Pathanamthitta district of the state for the annual two-month long Mandala-Makaravilakku pilgrimage which began on November 17.
The increase in footfall had resulted in crowd management and traffic control issues, especially on Saturday when close to a lakh bookings were made via the virtual queue system and around 90,000 devotees arrived for 'darshan'.
