10-day Vaikunta Darshan yields Rs 41.14 cr in offerings at Tirumala

Tirupati: Tirumala temple has set a new record, collecting ₹41.14 crore in its Hundi during the 10-day Vaikunta Dwara Darshan held between December 30 and January 8.At a joint press conference, TTD chairman BR Naidu, EO Anil Kumar Singhal, Tirupati district collector Dr S Venkateshwar, SP L Subbarayudu, and additional EO Ch Venkaiah Chowdary announced that both the Hundi collection and pilgrim footfall were the highest ever since the Vaikunta Ekadasi celebrations were extended the 2-day Vaikunta Ekadasi event to be celebrated as a 10-day event.Naidu revealed that 7.8 lakh devotees walked through the sacred Vaikunta Dwaram this year, marking the highest footfall since 2022. The trust also distributed free food to 33 lakh devotees and sold 44 lakh sacred Tirupati laddus during the festival.He praised the district police and TTD's vigilance wing for ensuring incident-free celebrations. EO Singhal added that other TTD temples across India also witnessed impressive pilgrim turnout, with total footfall rising from 7.5 lakh last year to 12.5 lakh this year—a 50% spike attributed to improved arrangements.Additional EO Venkaiah Chowdary noted that integrated command control and better crowd management systems enabled hassle-free Darshan for the record number of devotees."We facilitated Darshan for more devotees than we actually planned. With the help of the integrated command control, better crowd management systems were enabled, which helped us ensure a hassle-free Darshan for a record number of 7.8 lakh devotees during the 10-day Vaikunta Dwara Darshan," Venkaiah Chowdary asserted.