Travancore Devaswom Board convene meeting for Sabarimala vision plan

Thiruvananthapuram: In a bid to make upcoming Mandala-Makaravilakku pilgrimage season (Nov to Jan) more pilgrim-friendly, Travancore Devaswom Board convened a coordination meeting of various departments at its headquarters on Wednesday.The meeting was aimed at planning the implementation of ‘Sabarimala vision plan' and gathering inputs from different departments on projects proposed under it. The vision plan submitted by the board earlier received approval from high court, paving the way for its phased execution in the upcoming pilgrimage season. A key decision taken at the meeting was to implement ‘green Sabarimala' project in coordination with forest department. The initiative aims to plant suitable tree species on Devaswom Board land in Sabarimala and Pamba to promote an eco-friendly environment. The project, expected to span two years, will begin before the onset of the monsoon and will be carried out in unused areas without affecting crowd management or other operations. For crowd management, the meeting decided to replace the existing system of barricades and rope-based restrictions with more pilgrim-friendly solutions. The devaswom board will procure and provide the new system for use by police. The vision plan also includes the formulation of new communication and sanitation protocols to improve coordination and hygiene during the pilgrimage season. The meeting was chaired by Travancore Devaswom Board president K Jayakumar and attended by board members K Raju and P D Santhosh Kumar, along with Sabarimala police chief coordinator S Sreejith and officials from various departments. Officials from multiple departments, including police, fire and rescue services, food safety, KSEB, water authority, pollution control board, KSRTC, Suchitwa Mission and the electrical inspectorate, participated in the meeting. Discussions focused on the changes and measures required from each department to effectively implement the plan.