This year’s Amarnath Yatra to be spread over 38 days will commence on July 3 and conclude on August 9, coinciding with Shravan Purnima (Raksha Bandhan
JAMMU: This year’s Amarnath Yatra to be spread over 38 days will commence on July 3 and conclude on August 9, coinciding with Shravan Purnima (Raksha Bandhan).
Announcing the schedule for the pilgrimage to the abode of Lord Shiva tucked away in the lower-Himalayas in south Kashmir at a height of 13,000 feet (3882 m), the Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board (SASB) said here on Wednesday that the yatra will commence simultaneously from both the traditional Pahalgam route in southern Anantnag district and shorter Baltal route in north Kashmir’s Ganderbal district.
Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha who is ex-officio chairman of the SASB, after chairing its 48th meeting at Raj Bhawan here, said that the government will assure a hassle-free pilgrimage and together with the board provide all necessary facilities to the devotees.
At the meeting, Mr. Sinha emphasised the importance of “adequate arrangements and requisite amenities” at various locations enroute the annual yatra as the authorities expect more devotees relocating to the revered cave-shrine this year than ever before. Keeping in view the possibility of the number of pilgrims surpassing the previous records, he called for increasing capacity at Srinagar’s Yatri Niwas and other lodgings, an official spokesman said here.
Last year, a little over half a million devotees paid obeisance and had the darshan of the fully formed natural Shivling or ice-lingam of Lord Shiva inside the cave-shrine during the 52-day-long yatra, surpassing all records of previous eleven years. In 2012, an all-time record number of over 600,000 devotees had visited Amarnath during the yatra period.
“Considering the likely increased inflow of pilgrims for this year’s yatra, the meeting discussed measures for the enhancement of lodgement capacity at the centres in Jammu, Srinagar and other locations, operationalization of yatri facilitation centres for e-KYC, issuance of RFID cards, on-spot registration of pilgrims at number of locations including Nowgam (Srinagar) and Katra (Jammu) railway stations,” an official statement said. It added that enhanced arrangements as per the requirement would be put in place at the basecamps of Baltal, Pahalgam, Nunwan, Pantha Chowk (Srinagar) too.
Wednesday’s meeting was attended also by Swami Avdheshanand Giri Ji Maharaj, D. C. Raina, Kailash Mehra Sadhu, K. N. Rai, Pitambar Lal Gupta, Dr. Shailesh Raina and Prof Vishwamurti Shastri-all members of the SASB.
“The board proposed various measures and interventions to further improve the facilities and services for the devotees,” the statement said.
It added that the meeting also discussed ongoing projects, dissemination of yatra-related information, insurance cover to pilgrims, service providers, ponnywallas, extension of online services by the SASB, widening and maintenance of the yatra tracks, decongestion measures at the cave-shrine and lower cave area, disaster preparedness and mitigation measures, adequate provisioning of Heli services, medical care facilities, weather forecasting infrastructure and systems, security and surveillance and digital pre-paid system for hiring services.
Dr Mandeep K. Bhandari, CEO of SASB gave a detailed presentation regarding the arrangements for the yatra during the meeting attended also by Chief Secretary Atal Dulloo, DGP Nalin Prabhat and other senior government officials.
The SASB sources said that the advance registration of the intending pilgrims is likely to begin by mid-April at the designated centres to be set up at more than five hundred branches of various banks including the Jammu and Kashmir Bank, the Punjab National Bank and the State Bank of India across the country.
As in the past, it would be mandatory for the intending pilgrims to produce health certificates for the registration. Children below 13 years, elders above 70 years and six-week pregnant women are unlikely to be permitted to take the arduous journey through the rugged terrains, the sources said.
In recent years, the authorities had also made wearing of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) cards by a pilgrim mandatory and the regime will not change “to ensure the safety of each and every devotee,” the sources said. Like in the past, each RFID will be equipped with the Radio frequency and linked with the Aadhar card of the user, enabling him or her to remain traceable if lost the way during the trekking from the designated locations in J&K, the sources added. End it