Officials of the Char Dham Sainyukt Rotation Yatra Vyavastha Samiti (CDSRYVS) are enthused by the response of the pilgrims, so far, even though only two of the Char Dham shrines have been reopened to the public so far. They state that the tourist arrivals in the initial days of the pilgrimage season are about 50 per cent higher than in 2014. Talking to The Pioneer, CDSRYVS head Sudhir Rai said that though the real test of the pilgrimage facilitation will be in the rainy season, the initial signs are positive.
“Generally during the initial stages of the Yatra we used to have about two to three busloads of pilgrims departing from Rishikesh. However, this year upto 10 buses are departing from here daily with pilgrims. Compared to last year, the pilgrim arrivals in Rishikesh are about 50 per cent higher. Considering that only two of the four shrines-Gangotri and Yamunotri have been reopened to the public so far, the number of arrivals is good and we expect it to increase by next month,” he said.
Regarding the photometric registration of pilgrims being undertaken at Char Dham tourist bus transit compound here, he said that the registration undertaken by the Rishikesh municipality till 2013 was better. “The registration done by the municipality had all relevant data including details of the particular buses boarded by the pilgrims. The revenue earned from registration was put to use for maintenance and other works by the municipality here, which is not the case anymore with registration being outsourced,” he said.
CDSRYVS administrative officer Brij Bhan Prakash said, “A total of 320 pilgrims departed from here towards Kedarnath on Wednesday. Most of these pilgrims are from Maharashtra and Gujarat and we expect that on returning from Kedarnath, the word spread by them among their acquaintances will attract more pilgrims in the near future.”