Andhra Pradesh mulls free Tirupati darshan for international passengers flying through Vizag

BENGALURU: Andhra Pradesh government is working on a novel scheme to offer free darshan at Tirumala Tirupati temple for international passengers flying through Visakhapatnam (Vizag), the largest city in the fledgling state the government is building as its technology capital.
Andhras’ Industries and IT Minister Mekapati Goutham Reddy, in a chat with ET on Tuesday, said this sort of scheme will help his government showcase Visakhapatnam as a tourist attraction. “Vizag is the right destination in Andhra Pradesh for creating a world class IT park. We are working on a novel scheme to get more flights into Vizag,” the Minister said.

Devotees and tourists visiting the world famous temple currently fly into Hyderabad, or Chennai or Bengaluru before heading to the temple town. The Andhra government is planning to tap them to visit Vizag, he said. “It is a big destination for religious tourism. We will use it to our advantage,” Reddy said.

Overseas tour operators, the Minister added, have already started contacting his office to understand the finer aspects of the scheme.

The Jagan Reddy regime is trying to depart from offering sops to investors and airlines flying into the state. Recently, it dropped its deal with Indigo airlines which operated a direct flight between Vijayawada and Singapore in return for the government providing a viability gap funding (VGF).