Nearly two lakh pilgrims have secured advance registration through the designated bank branches, group registration facility and booking of helicopter tickets for this year’s annual Amarnath yatra beginning from June 29.
This information was given to Governor NN Vohra, Chairman of the Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board (SASB), by Umang Narula, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the shrine board, at a review meeting here today.
The registration of pilgrims is being provided from March 1 this year through 437 designated branches of Punjab National Bank, J&K Bank and YES Bank, located in 32 states and UTs across the country, a spokesman said. The ongoing trend of registration shows that about 1,200 persons are being registered every day and the maximum numbers are being registered from the states of Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab, MP, Gujarat, Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan and West Bengal, in the same order.
It was observed in the meeting that the advance registration for the traditional Pahalgam route in south Kashmir is slightly more preferred than the shortest Baltal route of 14 km via Srinagar-Ladakh axis near Sonmarg and this conforms to the traditional pattern of the yatra. 143 groups have so far utilised the group registration facility.
The CEO reported that with the reduced helicopter ticket fare this year as compared to previous years, pilgrims in larger numbers have booked tickets in advance for the yatra. The per passenger one-way heli-fare for the yatra is Rs 1,715 (inclusive of all taxes) for Neelgrath-Panchtarni and Rs 2,950 (inclusive of all taxes) for Pahalgam-Panjtarni.
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