The Kerala government on Monday decided to limit the number of pilgrims at Sabarimala Ayyappa temple to 90,000 per day as the heavy rush of pilgrims in recent days have made crowd control difficult.
Normally, the temple opens for 18 hours every day. But in view of considerable rush, the temple is being kept open for an additional 30 minutes each in the afternoon and night over the last few days, and the practice will continue.
A high-level meeting convened by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan also decided to monitor the situations on a weekly basis and make necessary arrangements.
A record number of 1.19 lakh pilgrims had booked on the virtual queue system on Monday for darshan. Till 4 pm, over 62,000 pilgrims had darshan.
While up to 1.2 lakh people can book in the virtual queue system being maintained by the Travancore Devaswom Board, the police were of the opinion that only around 85,000 pilgrims could be handled during the day.
According to sources, only 65-80 pilgrims could climb the 18-holy steps per minute. Hence it would not be practical to allow more than 85,000 to 90,000 pilgrims a day. More police officials experienced in crowd control and helping pilgrims climb the holy steps are also being deployed.
The Kerala High Court is also reviewing the crowd management. The court held a special sitting on Sunday and asked the temple authorities if it was possible to extend the opening hours of the temple by one more hour.