The famous 'Tirupati laddu', sold at the Sri Venkateswara temple atop Tirumala in Andhra Pradesh, will be available for purchase by devotees in Hyderabad from Sunday.
The laddus would be made available at the information centre of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) that governs the shrine, at Himayat Nagar in Hyderabad, a temple official told PTI on Saturday.
The official said the laddus were transported to Hyderabad on Saturday evening. After getting the Telangana government's nod, TTD sent several trucks loaded with about 60,000 laddus to Hyderabad.
The laddu, which is priced at Rs 50 each, would be sold at Rs 25 as a token of gift to devotees during the COVID-19 lockdown period.
Entry of devotees to the more than 2,000-year old temple, that used to draw thousands from across the country every day during normal times, has been barred since March to check the spread of the deadly coronavirus.
Meanwhile, the TTD came up with the plan to sell the laddus at subsidised price in places including Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Chennai. As part of it, it had on May 25 commenced sales of laddus in Andhra Pradesh and until Saturday evening a total of about 12 lakh laddus were sold there, the official told PTI.
Out of this 2.4 lakh were sold on the first day alone. In Andhra Pradesh, the TTD is selling the laddus at its marriage halls and Information Centres at the headquarters of all districts in the state.
Authorities said that all COVID-19 guidelines like physical distancing and adequate sanitising was being done in the presence of local government machinery.
The TTD is awaiting nod from governments in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka to transport the laddus to be sold to devotees there also.