Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) Chairman Y V Subba Reddy on Thursday said the board is contemplating constructing a bigger and spacious temple in Chennai to cater to devotees from Tamil Nadu.
Stating that a majority of devotees who visited the Lord Venkateswara Temple at Tirupati were from Tamil Nadu, Reddy said the board would take a decision after consulting Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy.
"We constructed a temple in Kanyakumari, similarly a decision will be taken to construct bigger and spacious temple, apart from the existing one, in Chennai after consultations with the chief minister," Reddy told reporters.
"If needed, our CM will initiate a dialogue with the Tamil Nadu government seeking lands for the temple," he added.
On junking of categories (List 1, List 2 and List 3) in the VIP darshan system at the Tirupati temple, Reddy said the move has brought down the total time allotted for special entry to "one and a half hours to two hours from four hours."
"I would like to clarify that we have not cancelled VIP darshan, but we have only removed categorisation which was used to mislead people and help ticket sales in black market thrive," Reddy told PTI.
"Every hour can accommodate six to seven thousand devotees. We have given utmost priority to the devotees," he added.
According to him, the Andhra Pradesh government is committed to eradicating corruption in the entire state including the TTD.
In the last two-and-a-half months six cases have been registered and a team of black ticket sellers caught, he said.
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