TIRUPATHI TEMPLE TO OPEN SOON? PICTURES SHOW 'SOCIAL DISTANCING' ARRANGEMENTS READY TO ALLOW PUBLIC!

The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) has sought permission from the Andhra Pradesh government to reopen its doors for darshan after lockdown. The temple has remained shut for public since March 20. At present, normal daily rituals are being carried on at the temple without any presence of public.

TTD Chairman YV Subba Reddy told CNN-News18, as the temple authorities are awaiting government approval,  the management is planning to keep it low-key initially in addition to following all guidelines including thermal screening, compulsory wearing of masks and social distancing.

"We plan to try things on an experimental basis to test our capacity to follow all due protocols before we go public. We have our internal staff of 21,000 and we want to do a dry run with them one of these days. Under no circumstances, do we want to put people's lives at risk given the scale of the coronavirus outbreak," Reddy was quoted as saying by News18.