TIRUPATI: As part of its ambitious programme to provide hassle-free darshan to devotees of Lord Venkateswara, the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) has embarked on an ambitious programme to make full use of Information Technology.

As a logical follow-up, the TTD would soon commission its eSeva Centres in all the metropolitan cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Bhubaneswar from where the pilgrims could book their darshan and accommodation online, two months ahead of their visit to the hill temple. Chennai, Bangalore, Pondicherry already have the centres.

Other facilities

This was disclosed here today by the TTD's Executive Officer, A.P.V. Narayana Sarma, addressing a meeting after receiving the guard of honour at the TTD campus here on Independence Day.

Mr. Sarma said that among the other high-end facilities on the cards are installation of `touch-screens' at the TTD Information Centres functioning at Hyderabad, Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam to help pilgrims get all the information required on the TTD, seva tickets, accommodation tariff, donation schemes and so on.

Another measure contemplated under the scheme is opening of a call centre in the TTD headquarters here from where the pilgrims could get information on all TTD-related activities.

All the departments in the TTD are being computerised while work is afoot to put in place the facility to reserve, through Internet, darshan and accommodation at Tirumala in advance to avoid crowding on the hills.

Appeal to staff

The EO also used the occasion to drive home the point to the TTD staff and workers who are on a collision course in support of their nine-point charter of demands not to forget that they owed their jobs to the monies offered to the temple by the poor and rich pilgrims alike.

"You must think twice before doing anything which would cause hardship to the lakhs of pilgrims visiting the temple and dislocate the working of the organisation," Mr Sarma told the TTD unions.

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