Despite multiple landslides that have blocked the route for pilgrims, the Uttarakhand government has decided that there will be no cap on the number of pilgrims visiting the dhams till September first week.
In a meeting held with purohits from the teerths, officials, hotel association members, tour operators, transporters and trade associations, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami announced that registrations will be permitted on the spot as well. “There will be no limit to the number of such registrations,” he said. These registrations are in addition to the online registrations that are mandatory for the yatra.
The yatra that starts in May continues till the first week of September when the temperatures fall and the deities are also carried away from the temples.
Offline registrations will be available at Rishikesh, Haridwar; and at the main stopping points at Badrinath and Kedarnath. The latter means that there is every possibility that the crowds will far outstrip the already stretched carrying capacity of these pilgrimage centres.
As per the latest government bulletin, nine lakh plus tourists have been to Badrinath till August 16. More than one lakh vehicles have reached Badrinath. According to the government’s own numbers, parking facilities available en route the dhams can cater to just over 700 vehicles.
On the night of July 31, the 19 kilometre Kedarnath access road for on-foot pilgrims caved in at 29 places. The pilgrims stranded on the road were rescued by helicopter services and with the help of locals. It took 15 days and 260 labourers to build the tourist path again, and despite that a few places are still not repaired.
The state government has decided that the dhams can accommodate 12,000 pilgrims per day but in 2018, a Supreme Court-appointed committee recommended a daily limit of 5,000 pilgrims to Kedarnath. There is also great discrepancy in the capacity for other teerths including Badrinath, Gangotri and Yamunotri.
In an investor summit in 2023, the state government had put forth a figure of 15 per cent as the contribution of the tourism sector to the state’s GDP. The state also intends to invite investments worth Rs 20,000 crore in the sector and take up 200 projects in the PPP mode by 2030.
