Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly expanding its influence worldwide, and now it’s set to make the path to darshan (divine viewing) easier in temples. The Tirumala temple in Andhra Pradesh, India, has become the first in the country to launch an AI-powered Integrated Command Control Center (ICCC), aimed at managing crowds effectively.
The Sri Venkateswara Swamy Temple, located on the Tirumala hills in Andhra Pradesh, is a prominent Hindu temple dedicated to Lord Venkateswara, an incarnation of Vishnu. It is one of the most visited and revered pilgrimage sites in India, renowned for its spiritual significance and architectural grandeur. The temple witnesses massive crowds of devotees, and AI has been employed to manage the gatherings efficiently.
The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD), which manages the world-famous hill temple, has unveiled an AI-powered ICCC in Tirumala. This center was inaugurated by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu.
This facility will transform the experience for millions of devotees visiting the temple by providing real-time crowd prediction, streamlined queue management, enhanced security, and advanced cyber threat monitoring.
The ICCC, established in the Vaikuntham Queue Complex-I, is equipped with advanced cameras, 3D situational maps, and continuous monitoring by a dedicated technical team.
This will serve as a national standard for tech-driven pilgrimage management, ensuring seamless services for devotees and efficient coordination for temple administrators.
At the heart of this state-of-the-art center are over 6,000 AI-based cameras, high-performance computing systems, and real-time dashboards capable of monitoring 518 million daily events and providing over 2.5 billion predictive insights per day.
With a processing capacity of 3.6 lakh payloads per minute, the system is designed to handle heavy data loads, enabling quick responses to emerging situations on the ground.
From predicting wait times for ‘Sarva Darshanam’ to visualizing crowd density in 3D, the ICCC will safeguard India’s busiest pilgrimage site from potential threats.
Additionally, the center’s cyber security will protect the temple’s systems and digital assets from misinformation, offensive content, and online threats.
Features include drone-assisted emergency response, tablet-based employee verification, and facial recognition for identifying missing persons.
‘Every stage of the pilgrims’ journey is now monitored and managed in real-time. From wait times in queues to security and cybersecurity, the ICCC ensures a fast, safe, and smooth experience,’ according to a TTD official.
The ICCC employs over two dozen trained professionals who work around the clock to monitor integrated dashboards and coordinate with various departments. This not only aids in quick decision-making but also enables real-time action on the ground.
Beyond crowd and queue management, the system is designed to protect the TTD’s reputation and ensure the smooth operation of the temple. Its cyber monitoring capabilities, including protection from misinformation campaigns and digital asset attacks, represent the integration of a digital approach in modern pilgrimage management.
This facility can set a new precedent for temple administration across India. Experts believe that Tirumala’s ICCC can serve as a model for other major temples and religious gatherings in the country, where managing large crowds, ensuring security, and dealing with digital threats are becoming increasingly complex.
With its unique blend of AI, machine learning, digital twins, and cloud-backed resilience, the Tirumala ICCC is hailed as a transformative leap for India’s spiritual tourism infrastructure. It demonstrates how tradition and cutting-edge technology can come together to better serve devotees while ensuring unprecedented levels of security, transparency, and efficiency.
The idea for the ICCC first came to Andhra Pradesh’s Information Technology Minister Nara Lokesh during his visit to Silicon Valley in October 2024, where he interacted with startups working on smart cities, digital twins, AI, and cybersecurity.
Inspired by these global practices, Lokesh initiated discussions with like-minded Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) to bring scalable, secure, and service-oriented technologies to Tirumala, developing it based on a public-private partnership (PPP) model.
