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Garuda Seva Draws Over Two Lakh to Tirumala as Security Net Holds Under Strain

Officials cited tech-enabled monitoring, traffic curbs, inter-agency coordination as reasons for an orderly procession.

Overview

  • Viewing galleries along the mada streets, built for about 1.75 lakh people, were filled by noon, prompting officials to halt further entry and redirect latecomers.
  • Police deployed 4,223 personnel, divided Tirumala into six DSP-led zones, and added roughly 300 special crime-prevention staff with suspect tracking through Papillon devices and facial recognition.
  • Real-time surveillance covered key junctions and parking zones using CCTV, automatic number plate recognition cameras and drones for continuous crowd and traffic monitoring.
  • Vehicular controls included a two-wheeler ban on ghat roads, parking capped at roughly 8,000 atop the hill, diversions to multiple satellite lots, and heavy reliance on APSRTC buses that produced queues.
  • Support measures featured uninterrupted free food and drinking water, medical readiness, help desks, and digital geo-tagging bands for children, seniors and people with special needs, even as verification bottlenecks and barricade breaches were checked by security.