The roti making machine; (above) rotis being rolled out of the machine. Pictures by G Vijayalakshmi

Hyderabad, June 1: Devotees from the north have long found food for the soul at Lord Balaji’s abode. Now they can whet their appetites, too.

The Tirumala temple will serve rotis as prasadam at its free food facilities, diversifying a largely south Indian menu with rice as the staple.

The temple with the country’s largest gold reserves has taken tips from the Golden Temple to make sure north Indian devotees feel at home.

Officials from the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), which runs the temple, travelled to the Amritsar shrine that has roti-making machines to feed the large number of the faithful. The officials came back with a model and got the device made at Coimbatore in neighbouring Tamil Nadu.

“We will provide roti-subzi to devotees on a 24x7 basis from July. We need a capacity to make at least 20,000 rotis daily,” said TTD executive officer I.Y.R. Krishna Rao.

Around 2,000 rotis were churned per hour in a trial run of the machine today at the Annadanam complex, the new free meal centre to be inaugurated by President Pratibha Patil on July 7.

The meals are provided under Nitya Annadanam, the TTD’s scheme to provide free food round-the-clock to all devotees. “On normal days, roughly 30,000 people have meals. The number goes up to over 70,000 during peak season (such as festivals and the New Year),” Rao said.

Devotees now feast on a six-course lunch and dinner, which includes rice, vegetable curry, chatney, sambar, rasam and a sweet dish. “The devotees will soon get rotis too,” Rao said.

Donations to the Nitya Annadanam scheme, whose aim is to ensure every devotee visiting Tirumala is fed, have touched Rs 200 crore.

A devotee from West Godavari, whose identity the TTD officials would not divulge, alone contributed all of the Rs 20 crore that has gone into setting up the new Annadanam complex. Built by Larsen & Toubro, the centre has space to feed 4,000 persons in one go and a giant kitchen.

The TTD also provides free food packets to devotees who wait in queues for long hours for darshan. The aged are given butter milk and babies hot milk. Such packets are also distributed to pilgrims who trek to the mountain shrine from Tirupati, the town at the base of the hills.

A plant has been set up at a cost of Rs 5 crore to provide mineral water at Rs 1 per litre. “The plant has a capacity to process one lakh litres per day,” a TTD official said.