Record 13 lakh bookings for Chardham Pilgrimage in eight days
The State Tourism Department called it a sign of record breaking flow of pilgrims to the four shrines as the pilgrimage season is scheduled to start on May 10.
After the Uttarakhand government relaxed entry norms for tourists, there is major upswing in the arrival of pilgrims in the hill state.
It was earlier mandatory for a visitor to produce a Covid-19 negative report to enter Uttarakhand and only 400-500 pilgrims used to register themselves daily for getting e-passes on the Uttarakhand Char Dham Devasthanam Management Board website to visit Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri and Yamunotri.
This has now jumped to over 4,000 per day.
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Some 4,410 pilgrims registered for visiting Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri and Yamunotri — popularly known as ‘Char Dhams’ — on the Uttarakhand Char Dham Devasthanam Management Board portal on Friday. Earlier on Thursday the board had registered 4,112 devotees for their pilgrimage to the four holy shrines in the Uttarakhand Himalayas.
After the board decided to make norms flexible for the tourists, the arrival trend changed drastically.
The Uttarakhand Char Dham Devasthanam Management Board announced the new norms for tourists on 29 September to see a big surge in registrations. That day 3,850 people registered on the Devasthanam Board portal and it increased to 4,568 on 30 September.
Ravinath Raman, CEO of Uttarakhand Char Dham Devasthanam Management Board, said, “ We have received encouraging responses to the Char Dham Yatra to Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri and Yamunotri.
The pilgrims are allowed to visit the temple after thermal screening and sanitization.” The Uttarakhand Char Dham Devasthanam Management Board — a government body managing the four holy shrines — has so far issued 85,785 e-passes (from 1 July to 2 October) for different dates. Over 46,000 pilgrims have so far visited the Char Dhams.
The increase in tourist movement has brought huge relief to businessmen and people involved in the tourism industry.
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