The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : ITDC's one-day trip to Tirupati welcomed

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jun 25, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

ITDC's one-day trip to Tirupati welcomed

T.S. Shankar

Priced at Rs.950 for adults and Rs.850 for children

CHENNAI: Anything well packaged seems to go down well with the public when it comes to travel.

The special one-day Tirupati and Tirumala tour, in a plush 45-seater air-conditioned Volvo coach, introduced by the India Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) has elicited a fairly good response from discerning travellers.

Priced at Rs.950 for adults and Rs.850 for children below 10 years, the service is available on all weekdays.

Itinerary

The journey begins at 5.30 a.m. from the ITDC office on Ethiraj Salaifrom the bus stop in front of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) Information Centre at Venkatnarayana Road, T. Nagar.

The coach goes to Tirupati through Tiruvallur, Tiruttani, Puttur and Renigunta and reaches the TTD's link bus station at the base of the hill at around 9.30 a.m.

A waiting TTD link bus transports the passengers to Tirumala, where they are guided to Seshadri Nagar Cottage No.337 to freshen up.

The passengers are then escorted to the Vaikuntam complex immediately for the `seva darshan'.

After the travellers get the darshan, the tour guide and the local representative of the ITDC at Tirumala receive the passengers outside the Tirumala temple and give each ticket holder two `laddus'.

After lunch at Hotel Grand, the passengers are taken to Tiruchanur to visit the Padmavathy temple. Here, one has to pay Rs.40 extra to get the quick `darshan' so as to facilitate an early return to Chennai.

M.S. Sengottuvan, Manager, Ashok travels and tours division of the ITDC, said customer convenience was given priority while designing the package.

Passengers feel that the package would be complete if the ITDC provided them something to read, say a newspaper, and packaged drinking water during the journey.

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