Modern shelter for Sabarimala pilgrims coming up

KOTTAYAM: A modern shelter for Sabarimala pilgrims will be set up here soon, under the aegis of the Southern Railways at a cost of Rs 1 crore, said general manager M S Jayanth here on Sunday.
The long-awaited facility will be similar to the one coming up at present on the premises of Chengannur Railway Station.
Accompanied by S D Dutt, divisional manager, Southern Railways, Thiruvananthapuram, and other officials from the division, Jayanth made a threadbare, onthe- spot assessment with regard to passenger amenities here, as part of a drive from stations in between Kottayam and Chenagannur on the eve of the upcoming Sabrimala pilgrimage season.
Expressing dissatisfaction over the lack of sufficient number of toilets and other amenities as well as deficiency in cleanliness at the station here, the general manager said that more temporary toilets would be set up in Platform number two, during the pilgrimage season.
"Galvanised roofs will be introduced in platforms where it has been found lacking and big screen electronic boards highlighting the arrival and departure timings of trains as well as positioning of coaches will be installed", he said.
The information counter at the station which is in the centre of severe criticism from passengers for long, will be beefed up and made attentive.
Memorandums were submitted to the general manager by officebearers of the Passenger's Associations demanding re-routing of the Venad Express through the Ernakulam South station, extension of the Ernakulam-Kottayam passenger upto Kayamkulam and allotting a halt for the evening Kayamkulam- Ernakulam push pull train at Kumaranaloor.

Sabarimala gears up to welcome devotees

Thiruvananthapuram, Oct 15 (PTI) Travancore Devaswom Board, which manages the famous Ayyappa temple at Sabarimala, has geared up to provide basic facilities at the hill shrine for lakhs of devotees expected during the festival season starting next month.

About three crore devotees visited the temple last year and the number would go up this year, State Devaswom Minister Kadanapalli Ramachandran told reporters after a meeting of South Indian state ministers in charge of departments administering temples and officials here.

It has been decided to allot land on a temporary basis to neighbouring states at Nilackel for putting up information counters, with people from respective states manning them.

It would to a great extent solve communication problems.

To ensure the availability of 'Aravana', the main prasadam of the temple, the capacity of the manufacturing plant has been increased from one lakh tins per day to 1.50 lakh tins.