Why Tirupati Tirumala needs Smarter Analytics ?

 (Image source: Indiantourist-spots.blogspot.com)

When 75,000 people visit a temple daily, the logistics of managing such a mass of population becomes a challenge. Tirumala the seven hills at about 880 meters elevation from sea level is a temple dedicated to Lord Venkateshwara, which draws in about 40 Million people annually and is worth around 50,000 crores, making it one of the richest religious places in the world.

In the 30 years that I have been to Tirupati the crowds have swelled and though infrastructure has grown it is not adequate to cover the growth in the devotees. Last week I visited the temple town and was convinced that technology had to be used adequately to solve the mammoth crowd issues that are developing there.

I am mostly concerned about two important issues- Public Safety and Health which incidentally are two very important aspects for any city. 

Public Safety from an impeding stampede has been greatly reduced by the temple authorities by restricting the flow of devotees into the main temple and its sanctum sanctorium. But this does not mean that public safety is not endangered in the waiting queues which are nothing waiting lines blocked by fences and bearded wires. An average wait time in these queues is about 2-3 hours, with no facility for either healthcare or for basic amenities like water. Things become more complicated if one is traveling with children or with senior citizens. In other words this is a disaster waiting to happen.

Secondly once one makes it inside the temple the process is so chaotic that it is a scene from one of the refugee camps in Africa. There is a mad scramble from the devotees who have been kept locked for hours. This is nothing new as the natural instinct of the individual is to break free from the holding cells. The waiting areas themselves have no amenities and lack any facilities that may relax or distract an individual.

Thirdly the surrounding facilities like the ones for tonsure of hair which incidentally generates 6 crores of revenue for the temple is also chaotic and unkempt. The facility again has no proper provision for bath or rest and again can lead to a potential scramble at the temple.

Finally there is a continuous flow of VIPs and VVIPs that visit the temple and the common man is prevented from entering the temple that time due to security reasons. This is probably the biggest reason for the crowd mismanagement at the temple.

Now I am truly surprised why a temple with so much funds under its control is not able to use basic analytics to predict and restrict the rush of devotees to the temple. 

What I propose are simple steps to ensure that such a calamity is avoided for good. And this involves the basic analytics technology which would again depend on historical and predictive analytics data.

Step 1

Look at the historical data for each day and this could be done over the last five years to see how many people visit the temple on each day. This would give the temple authorities some idea as to how many people they expect would visit the temple on any given particular day.  Taking the data from the last five years would help normalize the spike in crowd when one of the special days like Vaikunta Ekadashi fall on any of the days.

Step 2

Look at predictive analytics to see what would be the increase in the number of devotees visiting the temple in the following year. This should take into account the growth in population and the number of people entering the age group of 10 years and above. Also the data should into account any downturn in the economy as the number of visits invariably increases when the economy is in trouble.

This might require some investment in technology. But compared to the simplification and increase in public safety that it would bring about the investment is worth it.

Step 3

All entry to the temple would be through pre booked slots which could be done over phone, SMS or online. On booking the pilgrim would receive a unique number. Once the slot is booked then the pilgrims have to visit the town of Tirupati, which could be used to serve as a base camp. Once the pilgrim enters the base camp and quotes a number he is issued a RFID tag, which is active for 12 hours and once the pilgrim enters the temple the RFID gets deactivated and cannot be used again.

Using this method the authorities can control the number of pilgrims that enter the hills and this would also ensure that the ecological balance of the hills is preserved.

Step 4

All VIP and VVIPs visits be restricted to only few days in the month. And that also to be factored in while issuing the serial numbers to the pilgrims. Also it would work if the temple authorities make special provisions for visits by invalids and other special arrangement cases.  

Now this is just the beginning with each quarter this method could be refined and reapplied leading to a much more smarter ecosystem for the temple, devotees and the authorities.