The Venkatadri app, launched by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on Monday, will give pilgrims at Tirumala digital access to directions, emergency contacts and essential facilities through an AI-supported voice assistant and offline navigation.
Developed by the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), the application maps more than 350 locations across 25 facility categories. Pilgrims can use voice commands to locate drinking-water points, hospitals and medical centres, parking areas, public toilets, bus stops and darshan entry points.
The app also covers luggage centres, free footwear-deposit centres, food outlets and canteens, room-allotment counters, pilgrim help desks, TTD offices and sub-enquiry offices. Other mapped locations include Kalyana Kattas, police stations, vigilance offices, temple surroundings, shopping complexes and the Matrusri Tarigonda Vengamamba Annaprasadam Complex.
Its offline navigation function is intended to support users in areas where mobile internet connectivity is weak or unavailable. The app also includes bus routes and timings, allowing pilgrims to access transport information while moving through the Tirumala pilgrimage complex.
A key feature is “Mark My Spot”, which allows users to save their parking location or another important place and receive navigation assistance to return to it. The application provides one-touch access to emergency contacts, the police and the TTD helpline, linking routine wayfinding with public assistance services.
Venkatadri is available in Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Hindi and English through the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. The language options reflect the diverse geographic base of visitors to Tirumala, where pilgrims arrive from across India. The app’s facility map is designed to bring information that is otherwise distributed across physical counters, signs and help desks into a single digital interface.
The TTD is also developing kiosk access for pilgrims who do not have smartphones. That provision is significant for a pilgrimage destination where reliance on an app alone could leave out visitors without compatible devices, mobile data or the ability to use smartphone-based navigation. The kiosk plan would create a parallel access channel for directions and facility information, although the source report did not specify the number, locations or launch timeline of the kiosks.
TTD said the initiative is intended to provide convenient access to directions and essential information and contribute to a more comfortable and peaceful darshan of Sri Venkateswara Swamy. Additional Executive Officer Sri Ch Venkaiah Chowdary and NRI philanthropist Sri JP from the United States explained the application’s functioning to Naidu after the virtual launch.
The launch places digital wayfinding alongside the physical systems required to manage a large pilgrimage centre: parking, public toilets, medical services, transport, accommodation, food distribution, policing and emergency response. For pilgrims, the immediate change is the availability of a single tool that brings these services together while retaining offline support and a non-smartphone access option through the planned kiosks.
