Accommodation
Thousands of straw mats await sleepy devotees
All lodges and hotels located within 12 square kilometres of Cochin were booked by the Ashram several months in advance of Amritavarsham50. The Ashram then set up a team of devotee-volunteers to arrange the allocation of the rooms to the thousands upon thousands of devotees who were making the pilgrimage to Cochin from around the world.
Marriage halls, auditoriums, schools and colleges throughout the district were also booked. In all, nearly 300 accommodation centres were utilised, housing some 110,000 people.
Devotees were able to specify ahead of time the quality of lodgings they required, with everything from mats to five-star accomodations available. The Ashram then provided free transportation services—using cars, buses and boats—to shuttle the devotees back and forth between their accomodations and the Amritavarsham50 Stadium.