THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Sabarimala temple, the abode of Lord Ayyappa witnessed heavy rush of pilgrims on Friday, the second day after the hill shrine was opened for over two month long pilgrim season on Thursday.

Devotees had to wait six to seven hours for the darsan of Lord Ayyappa as the queue to 'Sannidhanam' reached up to 'Marakkoottam' by this evening. Owing to heavy rush, security personnel's had to block the way of pilgrims at Pampa at regular intervals.

In a bid to ease down the heavy rush, darsan timings at the temple has been increased form the current season. As per the new schedule, the temple will be open from 3 am to 11.45 pm, barring a two hour break from 1 pm to 3 pm. During previous years, the darsan timings was from 4 am to 11 pm with a two and a half hour break in between 1. 30 pm to 4 pm.

Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) authorities said that enough quantity of 'prasadam' (offerings) was available for distribution and 'abhishekam' timings has been extended up to 11. 30 pm. TDB has not yet erected any make shift shelters for thousands of pilgrims that stay back at Sannidanam beyond 11.30 pm. As per statistics, around 16 to 20 thousand pilgrims stay back at the temporary shelters at Sannidanam every day.