It has been decided that Tirumala will start its trial run from June 8. The trial run will go on for three days.

"TTD has decided that only its employees will be allowed to have darshan on June 8 and 9 while local devotees will be permitted on June 10," an IANS report says.

Other devotees will be let in from June 11 with proper restrictions in place. In order to ensure social distancing, only 6000 to 7000 devotees would be allowed per day. "About 500 devotees will be accommodated per hour," the report adds. "Darshan will commence at 6.30 a.m. and end at 7.30 p.m.," TTD Chairman YV Subba Reddy has been quoted as saying. VIP darshan starts from June 11 for an hour (6.30 a.m. to 7.30 a.m.) a day.

Senior citizens above 65 years and children below 10 years have been barred from entering the temple. Also, there will be no entry for devotees hailing from containment zones in any part of the country.

Arrangements have been put in place to ensure that 3000 darshan tickets will be sold online every day. Online tickets for June will be sold on June 8 (Monday). In addition, 3000 tickets will be sold at the counters at the Alipiri checkpoint on a daily basis. The is the upper limit.

Screening of devotees:

Devotees will be screened at Alipiri. Every devotee will have to go through thermal checking. Covid-19 tests will be conducted on random visitors.

What about tonsuring?

No decision has been taken on the tonsuring facility. Restrictions on several rituals have been put in place. It won't be business as usual.