Swine Flu effect in Tirupathi ?

For the first time in my life, I completed a Balaji Darshan in about 30 minutes flat. For the usual, I should say it was Scant crowd yesterday at Thirumala. A special mention though has to go to IRCTC through whose one day packaged tour facility did I make my visit.

I had been to Tirupathi before through the one day tours organized by APTDC and TTDC, usually in AC/Non-AC buses. Looks like IRCTC has jumped into this business from nowhere. At least I didn’t know of their services until I booked my tickets a week before. We started our trip at about 5:30 in the morning and reached back home by 6:30 PM. The earliest I had reached until yesterday through TTDC or APTDC buses was about 10:30 in the night. Reason could be any or a combination of the below said:

1. IRCTC operates only Tempo Travellers (12 per van) and not buses which keeps the crowd (and their interdependence on Tonsuring,Assembling etc.) minimal* (catch explained at the bottom). Another side benefit is, we booked the entire van (12 people) for our family and hence it was more like a private family trip than a packaged tour. You can negotiate (I paid Rs.600) with the driver for a pick up and drop at your house in this case. Otherwise you have to board near TTD temple in Venkatnarayana road, T.Nagar at 5 in the morning.

2. The Tempo traveller takes you all the way to Tirumala whereas with TTDC, ITDC and APTDC buses you have to get down at Tirupati foot hills and board another Ghat bus to travel to Tirumala.

All of the above saves time in reaching Tirumala for Darshan. Having started at 5:30 AM, we were put to queue at 10:30 AM. The crowd from buses on the other hand would have reached the queue only at about 11:30-11:45 AM if not later. Problem with that timing is, Kalyanotsavam starts at about 12 noon and the crowd/queue gets stuck for at least 3 Hrs due to that. This explains the delay in arrival time to a greater extent. So, the moral is, the earlier you reach the queue in the morning, the better (on a packaged trip).

Regarding the cost, following were the options with me:

ITDC volvo bus – Rs. 1000/- per head
ITDC Non AC – Rs.800/- per head (not sure)
TTDC and APTDC buses will also cost about the same.

IRCTC Tempo traveller – Rs.1045/- per head. Yes, it is expensive than a Volvo with a fraction of its comfort but still very effective in the achieving the main goal – QUICK DARSHAN.

Now about the title of this post – Swine Flu effect in Tirupathi. Well that is another possibility that we had scant crowd and a quick darshan. I know I could as well have titled it as “IRCTC services to Tirumala”, but then Swine Flu fetches much more attention these days.. so following the Indian Media tactics here

* There are 4 Tempo travellers with IRCTC deployed for this packaged tour daily. All the 4 vehicles sync up as they reach Tirupathi foot hills from Chennai for Breakfast. There is only one guide for all the 4 vehicles. Meaning, you are still dependent on 48 people (about the volvo bus strength) in the worst case to sync up for Darshan. But thankfully, we had just 2 vans (the other too only partially filled) travelling yesterday. So, all said and done, my experience might be a once in a blue moon type too. So, consider this a rider if you eventually reach at 10:30 in the night only even if you travel through IRCTC