Tirumala , June 16 :

The temple of Lord Venkateswara has been experiencing an unprecedented turnout in the pilgrim crowd since Saturday.

It took more than 30 hours for those in the ordinary darshan lines, the waiting time stretched beyond 15 hours for those reaching on foot.

As never before, the darshan lines stretched out to several kilometres outside the massive queue complex.

Devotees were rather forced to spend prolonged hours in the labyrinthine queue even before reaching the entry point (Vaikuntam complex) for the darshan of the presiding deity.

The authorities who had a tough time meeting the requirements of the pilgrims were caught unawares by the sudden surge in the crowd.

As several thousands of pilgrims preferred reaching the hill town on foot it was chaotic atop the temple town right from the crack of the dawn.

To bring the situation under control the temple administration not only confined the issuance of the Rs.300 special darshan tokens for a couple of hours in the morning but also restricted the Divya darshan token holders from joining the darshan lines after 5 p.m..