DEHRADUN: Uttarakhand government on Sunday increased the daily number of pilgrims allowed in Char Dham-Kedarnath Badrinath, Gangotri, and Yamunotri.
"The limit of per day pilgrim allowed has been increased in all four shrines from Monday. However, e-passes will be issued on the basis of availability of accommodation, food, toilet, and other arrangements, including social distancing, as assessed by respective district magistrates. This has been necessitated following increased footfall of pilgrims after Unlock-5," Chief executive officer of Char Dham Devsthanam Board, Ravinath Raman told The New Indian Express.
The limit of per day visitors to Badrinath has been increased to 3000 while the same number of pilgrims will be allowed every day in Kedarnath too, starting Monday.
While 900 pilgrims will be allowed at Gangotri, for Yamunotri, the number has been fixed at 700.
Earlier, the state government had put a limitation on the number of pilgrims visiting every shrine per day. The number of pilgrims had been fixed at 800 for Kedarnath, 1200 for Badrinath, 600 for Gangotri, and 400 for the Yamunotri shrine.
Last week, the state government had exempted the pilgrims from producing a Covid-19 negative test report to visit Char Dham shrines.
The updated guidelines regarding the visit to Char Dham Yatra, that were released last week, mention that pilgrims will have to undergo thermal scanning at the entrance of the shrines and if their temperatures are found to be higher than normal, they will be tested for Covid-19 and will have to bear the cost of the same.
The guidelines also stated that if any pilgrim develops symptoms similar to Covid-19, they should avoid visiting the shrine while pilgrims travelling to the shrines through heli services will not need an e-pass.
Meanwhile, the chopper services to Kedarnath will resume on October 9 and will be offered from three helipads at Phata, Guptkashi, and Sirsi. Fare for one side has been fixed at Rs 2360, Rs 3875, and Rs 2340 respectively.
Officials told TNIE that the authorities from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) will inspect the facilities and arrangements for chopper services before approval to resume the services.
Last year, over 38 lakh pilgrims travelled to the four shrines of the hill state.