With the Uttarakhand High Court vacating the stay on conduct of the Char Dham Yatra, the State Government has issued standard operating procedures (SOPs) for the start of the pilgrimage from Saturday.
All the pilgrims and stakeholders will have to observe Covid protocol, the local populace should be vaccinated after identification of buffer zones, the Yatra should be conducted in view of the Covid carrying capacity and an effective enforcement and vigilance system will be put in place. All pilgrims from outside the State will have to register on the Dehradun smart city portal while those from within the state need not register online. All pilgrims will need to procure Yatra e-pass from the official website of Char Dham Devasthanam Board for visiting the Char Dham shrines. All pilgrims will receive permission only on showing double vaccination certificate 15 days after the second dose.
Those who have had one or no dose will be permitted only with RT-PCR/TrueNat/CBNAAT/ RAT Covid negative report not more than 72 hours old than the time of pilgrimage. Further, pilgrims from high caseload states of Kerala, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh will need the Covid negative report even after the double dose vaccination certificate. The limit set for the number of pilgrims visiting the shrines daily is 1,000 in Badrinath, 800 in Kedarnath, 600 in Gangotri and 400 in Yamunotri.