Sabarimala Digital Overhaul: TDB Mandates Digital Payments, Expands Room Booking
The Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB), which manages the Sabarimala temple in Kerala, has decided to make all financial transactions at the temple complex completely digital. The decision was taken at a special board meeting held at the board's headquarters on Friday, with the aim of ensuring transparency in financial dealings.
TDB president K. Jayakumar announced the changes at a press conference after the meeting. He said that bookings for rooms, offerings, and donations will now be processed digitally. The board also decided not to organise the Ayyappa Sangamam event again, stating that 'Ayyappa does not need publicity.'
Under the new system, pilgrims will have access to more rooms for online booking. Currently, only 190 out of a total of 690 rooms are available for booking. Going forward, 550 rooms will be available online. The practice of collecting deposits for room booking will be discontinued due to past complaints about delays in returning deposits. Pilgrims will only need to pay the room rent in advance, along with a non-refundable service charge of ₹50 per room.
The board also decided to outsource housekeeping work in the guesthouses at Sabarimala, and expressions of interest will be invited. A new guesthouse with 60 rooms will be constructed near the Sabari guesthouse, subject to approval from the High Court and the Sabarimala High Power Committee. The construction will be entrusted to government-accredited agencies.
A round-the-clock festival control room will function at the TDB headquarters from November 1 to January 30, in connection with the Sabarimala pilgrimage season. The board has accepted in principle a detailed proposal from the Police department for an AI-enabled crowd management system, costing ₹17 crore. Efforts will be made to raise this amount through corporate social responsibility (CSR) funds.
To ensure quality in construction work, a technical quality audit team will be appointed, comprising a retired Chief Engineer and two retired Superintending Engineers (Civil and Electrical). A systematic sanitation protocol will also be implemented, with an in-principle agreement reached with the Clean Kerala Company for waste disposal in Sabarimala and Pampa.
Products for all offerings in Sabarimala will be distributed only through the central store. The number of receipts for 'padi puja' distributed in a day will be increased from one to five, after consulting the Tantri. Additionally, an amount of ₹1 lakh each will be distributed from the Pilgrim Relief Fund to the dependents of 54 people who died of heart attacks while climbing to the Sannidhaam last year. The board also decided to pay bills for renovation works in Sabarimala within a month of completion.
