TCS, Wipro in race for Rs 35 cr Tirupati project

TCS and Wipro are among three companies vying to bag the prestigious Sri Seva Project of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) to provide IT solutions that will help devotees.

Currently, TTD offers four main e-services such as e-seva, e-accommodation, e-sudarshanam and e-hundi to the devotees and the Sri Seva project would help the administration in offering services like providing rooms, 'laddus' as well as in  tonsuring.

There are as many as 48 departments which need to be automated and brought under one platform for better services to pilgrims, TTD had said.

"TCS, Wipro and Infinite Computer Solutions have been shortlisted from the technical bids. Next step will be going for financial bids. By December, we want to implement the project," sources said.

Once the process of technical bids for the Sri Seva project gets over over in a span of ten days, the TTD may go for financial bids, they said.

The project is estimated to cost between Rs 30 crore to Rs 35 crore, with an additional maintenance cost of around Rs 12 crore every year in the first phase, a senior official earlier said.

The phenomenal growth in the number of pilgrims visiting Tirumala has put constant pressure on all the systems, most of which are based on manual operations.

According to TTD, around 50,000 devotees visit Lord Balaji's main temple in Tirumala every day and on holidays and festivals, the figure crosses one lakh.