Poor upkeep of Sri Rathnagiriswarar Temple at Ayyarmalai near Kulithalai has irked the devotees.

The temple, situated at a height of 1,178 feet above the ground level, attracts a large number of devotees from different parts of the State. It gets devotees from Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana as well. To have a darshan of Lord Rathnagiriswarar devotees either have to climb 1,017 steps or travel by a rope car.

But lack of basic infrastructure, inadequate maintenance and poor upkeep of temple premises have drawn criticism from the devotees. It takes about 90 minutes for the devotees to reach the temple atop. Aged devotees take longer time to reach the top. Since the steps are steep the devotees find it extremely difficult to climb the steps.

It was aimed at facilitating the devotees to reach the temple easily, the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowment installed a rope car system a few years ago.Though it is serving the purpose still now, devotees complain that the rope car is operated only for a limited time. They say that it is operated only between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m., forcing the devotees to use the steps to reach the temple at other times.

Drinking water is essential for the devotees to climb the steps. However, there is no provision for drinking water along the path of the hillock. There is no sanitation facility as well along the route. Except for a few steps from the base, most steps have been filled with garbage, puja items, plastic bags and others, thereby indicating that there is no system in place for cleaning the steps regularly.

“It is surprising that the temple administration has failed to provide drinking water to the devotees. The environment is dirty. We are disappointed to note the poor upkeep of the temple,” said K. Murugan, a devotee from Somarasampettai in Tiruchi district, who visited the temple along with his family members recently.

The limited operation of the rope car has not gone well among the devotees as well. The service is unavailable after 3 p.m. The devotees, who reach the temple after 3 p.m., have to return without having the darshan of the Lord Rathnagiriswarar.

“Since we were told that the rope car was not available in the afternoon, we began climbing at 3 p.m. It took about two hours to reach the temple. But by the time we reached there, the temple was closed,” said a devotee from Dindigul.

He said the temple administration should install a standard information board, thereby indicating the timing of darshan and the schedule of rope car operation.