Sabarimala online booking for the upcoming Mandala-Makaravilakku season will open at 10 am on October 29, with daily limits set across the main access route and traditional forest pilgrimage paths to manage the movement of devotees.
The Travancore Devaswom Board announced that the season will begin on November 16. Devotees can register through www.sabarimalaonline.org, where the booking facility will be available free of charge. The arrangements are intended to regulate the number of people reaching the hill shrine during the peak pilgrimage period.
The largest daily allocation will be for the Nilakkal-Pamba route, through which 60,000 devotees will be permitted to access Sabarimala each day. The Erumeli traditional route and the Vandiperiyar-Sathram route will each have a daily limit of 3,000 devotees.
The route-based limits create a capacity framework across the principal entry points used during the pilgrimage season. Nilakkal serves as a major access and transport point for devotees travelling towards Pamba, while Erumeli and Vandiperiyar-Sathram are associated with traditional forest routes. The separate allocations are intended to distribute pilgrim movement and reduce uncontrolled congestion on different approaches to the shrine.
Spot booking will also be available at Nilakkal, Erumeli and Vandiperiyar. At Nilakkal, up to 10,000 devotees per day will be permitted through spot booking. Erumeli, Vandiperiyar and Sathram will each have a daily spot-booking limit of 2,000 devotees.
Spot booking will not be available at Pamba this season. The arrangement follows an order of the Kerala High Court, according to the report. Devotees arriving at Pamba will therefore need to rely on the booking arrangements available through the designated online system or the other authorised spot-booking centres.
The booking itself will not carry a fee. The website will, however, allow devotees to make voluntary contributions to the devotees’ relief fund, beginning at Rs 5 or any higher amount of their choice. A separate donation option will also be available for those who wish to support cleanliness and sanitation measures at Sabarimala.
The booking system combines advance registration, route-specific capacity limits and selected on-site booking centres. For visitors, the main operational requirement will be to select the appropriate route and booking option before travelling, particularly because the availability and daily limits differ between Nilakkal, Erumeli, Vandiperiyar and Sathram.
The online registration is scheduled to begin at 10 am on October 29, ahead of the season’s opening on November 16. The Board’s announced limits and the court-directed restriction at Pamba will determine how devotees are admitted through the different access points during the Mandala-Makaravilakku period.
