Under PM Modi's watch, Amarnath and Chardham Yatras may see highest footfall
Prime Minister Narendra Modi keeping a close watch on the Amarnath and Chardham Yatras could finally bear fruit this year with the highest-ever number of pilgrims expected at these shrines during the tenure of the present government.
The advance registrations for the two-month-long Amarnath Yatra, which is set to start on June 28, have already crossed 2 lakh. This is partly driven by cheaper helicopter fares this time thanks to the Goods and Service Tax (GST) being implemented J&K. This has brought the tax down from 12% to 5%, and a one-way chopper ride is available at just Rs 1,600.
Nearly 40,000 pilgrims have purchased tickets to fly to the Amarnath shrine and all chopper tickets for the first three weeks of the Yatra are already sold out, ET has learnt. Pilgrim count at the ongoing Chardham Yatra, which have meanwhile crossed 20 lakh in the last two months, is set to break the record of nearly 22 lakh pilgrims who visited the four shrines in Uttarakhand in 2017.
The season lasts from April till October. Over 6.15 lakh people have visited one of the four shrines, Kedarnath Temple, since it opened on April 29, compared to 4.7 lakh pilgrims here in the entire season last year. “The PM expects over 10 lakh pilgrims to visit Kedarnath – more than double than last year. He has personally monitored the temple’s reconstruction,” a senior official said.
At a recent PRAGATI review meeting, before the Chardham Yatra began, the PM had monitored all four temples – Kedarnath, Badrinath, Gangotri and Yamnotri – and the infrastructure around them, through video footage from drones. Incidentally, the highest ever number of pilgrims to Amarnath and Kedarnath have been in erstwhile UPA government’s tenure – 6.3 lakh at Amarnath and nearly 5.7 lakh at Kedarnath, both in year 2011. This record regarding Kedarnath has already been broken this year.
The Amarnath shrine, meanwhile, saw 3.7 lakh pilgrims in 2014 but in 2016, the gunning down of terrorist Burhan Wani in J&K triggered protests and brought down pilgrim count at the Amarnath Yatra down to just 2.2 lakh. “Yatra was for 40 days in 2017 but it is for 60 days in 2018. We may break the 2014 record. Even NSG is being posted for Amarnath Yatra to assure pilgrims on security.
All vehicles bringing pilgrims to Yatra base camps from Jammu are being geo-tagged,” a senior official said. Besides the Wani killing in 2016, the steep chopper fares also were a deterrent for pilgrims that year.
The advance registrations for the two-month-long Amarnath Yatra, which is set to start on June 28, have already crossed 2 lakh. This is partly driven by cheaper helicopter fares this time thanks to the Goods and Service Tax (GST) being implemented J&K. This has brought the tax down from 12% to 5%, and a one-way chopper ride is available at just Rs 1,600.
Nearly 40,000 pilgrims have purchased tickets to fly to the Amarnath shrine and all chopper tickets for the first three weeks of the Yatra are already sold out, ET has learnt. Pilgrim count at the ongoing Chardham Yatra, which have meanwhile crossed 20 lakh in the last two months, is set to break the record of nearly 22 lakh pilgrims who visited the four shrines in Uttarakhand in 2017.
The season lasts from April till October. Over 6.15 lakh people have visited one of the four shrines, Kedarnath Temple, since it opened on April 29, compared to 4.7 lakh pilgrims here in the entire season last year. “The PM expects over 10 lakh pilgrims to visit Kedarnath – more than double than last year. He has personally monitored the temple’s reconstruction,” a senior official said.
At a recent PRAGATI review meeting, before the Chardham Yatra began, the PM had monitored all four temples – Kedarnath, Badrinath, Gangotri and Yamnotri – and the infrastructure around them, through video footage from drones. Incidentally, the highest ever number of pilgrims to Amarnath and Kedarnath have been in erstwhile UPA government’s tenure – 6.3 lakh at Amarnath and nearly 5.7 lakh at Kedarnath, both in year 2011. This record regarding Kedarnath has already been broken this year.
The Amarnath shrine, meanwhile, saw 3.7 lakh pilgrims in 2014 but in 2016, the gunning down of terrorist Burhan Wani in J&K triggered protests and brought down pilgrim count at the Amarnath Yatra down to just 2.2 lakh. “Yatra was for 40 days in 2017 but it is for 60 days in 2018. We may break the 2014 record. Even NSG is being posted for Amarnath Yatra to assure pilgrims on security.
All vehicles bringing pilgrims to Yatra base camps from Jammu are being geo-tagged,” a senior official said. Besides the Wani killing in 2016, the steep chopper fares also were a deterrent for pilgrims that year.