Tirupati, Jan 25th: The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), like every year, is planning to deposit their excess gold offerings by devotees in Sri Vari hundi across the world, in nationalized banks in the country. Over 60,000 pilgrims visit the world famous Venkateswara Swamy temple in Tirumala daily the figure for which crosses one lakh on the occasion of 'Sri vari Brahmotsavams' held during the Dassura period. The offerings made by the devotees, including visitors from abroad, amount to more than 750 kg of gold, one of the TTD officials said.

The exclusive donation scheme aims to gold to gold-plate the richest Hindu shrine in the world. With the completion of the project, the Venkateswara Swamy temple will be bracketed among the likes of the glittering Golden temple and Sripuram temple at Amritsar and Vellore in Tamil Nadu respectively, the official said. 

The TTD, whose budget is more than that of smaller states and many urban civic authorities in the country would deposit excess gold under gold deposit schemes at nationalized banks, Last year, the institute had deposited more than 500 kg of gold with the Indian Overseas Bank for interest over three-year tenure, the official said. This year, the TTD, who reportedly announced to deposit their huge excess gold under the gold scheme, had received quotations regarding different rates of interest from the five nationalized banks, including Andhra Bank, SBI and Vijaya Bank, but the TTD official refused to reveal the quantity of gold it plans to deposit in the banks year.