Kochi: Spot booking facility will be available for pilgrims to offer prayers at the hill shrine of Sabarimala from Thursday.
The facility will be available in ten transit points enroute to the shrine to make the pilgrimage hassle-free, the state government told the Kerala High Court.
It could be utilised by those who have not booked in advance. This facility is in addition to the existing Virtual Queue system operated by Kerala Police.
The decision to introduce the spot booking was taken in response to the High Court’s direction to the state government and the Devaswom Board to introduce a facility for those who were unable to book for the virtual queue.
The court had given the direction while considering a batch of petitions seeking the transfer of control of the virtual queue from Kerala police to the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB).
The government had told the court that the TDB was not capable of managing the crowd and only the police had the professional ability to do so.
The government had introduced the facility as per the direction of the Kerala High Court in the wake of Pullumedu disaster which claimed several lives due to the absence of an effective crowd management system like Virtual Queue.
The court also directed the government to spread the news so that maximum pilgrims could utilise the facility.
