TBM Staff - Mumbai With little more than a week to go for the commencement of Chardham Yatra, the number of online registrations has picked up in the state. Over a lakh registration have taken place so far for the period May 3 to 31.
For the first time, registrations for the Chardham Yatra have been made mandatory for all the pilgrims coming to visit the shrines of Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri and Yamunotri and Shri Hemkund Sahib. The registration facility is available both online and offline. Those going for advance registration can avail the online facility while those arriving without registration will have to do on the spot registration at different registration counters on the Chardham routes. However, since start of online facility, number of registrations are picking up steadily.
The Chardham Yatra this year begins on May 3 with the opening of Gangotri and Yamunotri dhams. This will be followed by the opening of the portals of Badrinath and Kedarnath Shrines on May 6 and 8, respectively and Hemkund Sahib on May 22. The total registrations have crossed the one lakh mark with a total of 102,508 registrations so far. Of these 15,829 registrations have been confirmed for Yamunotri, 16,804 for Gangotri, 41,107 for Kedarnath and 29,488 registrations for Badrinath.
Tourism authorities are sharing the data with the concerned districts and police authorities. Besides online, authorities in the districts where the Chardhams are located are making available on the spot offline registration facility for the pilgrims.
A control room has also been set up in Dehradun which is providing all relevant information to the pilgrims. Toll free no 1364 and helpline numbers 0135-1364, 0135-2559898, 0135-2552627 and 0135-3520100 have also been released for the purpose. An average of 400-500 calls per day are received in the control room. Those manning the control room are also well versed in multiple languages for the ease of pilgrims who do not know Hindi or English.
This year, for the first time, a vehicle tracking mechanism has also been introduced. Cameras have been installed at various locations on the Chardham routes that will keep a track of the vehicular movement. Cameras have been installed at Rishikesh, Badkot, Bhatwari, Joshimath and other routes leading to Chardham. Yatra Mitras have been deployed at over hundred kiosks to assist with on-the-spot registration of arriving pilgrims.
