The state police are now engaged in giving final shape to the preparations for the char dham yatra slated to begin from April 28. In view of lakhs of pilgrims along with VIPs and VVIPs being expected to reach Uttarakhand on way to the char dham pilgrimage, senior cops have directed the district officers to deploy additional police forces on char dham yatra routes. A total of 68 temporary police posts would be set up on char dham yatra routes to facilitate the pilgrims to complete their yatra without any glitch, said state police spokesperson and additional director general of police (law and order) Ram Singh Meena on Thursday.
Notably, the char dham yatra beginning from April 28, the pilgrimage for Yamnotri will start that day while the yatra for Gangotri would start on May 3 and the same for Kedarnath and Badrinath shrines are set to start on May 6. Adequate contingents of the state disaster response force would be deputed apart from deployment of 65 teams from disaster management. Around 70 tourist police would be deployed after being trained on hospitality, spoken English and others to enable them to easily communicate with the tourists and help them complete their yatra comfortably.
Three- day training for tourist police personnel will start from Monday at police lines, Meena said, adding that in order to ensure smooth char dham yatra, a total of 88 traffic points have been made on the yatra routes. A total of 103 black spots have been identified as being accident prone with the officers of Public Works Department being asked to take measures to repair roads, install warning sign boards and others. He further said that the police personnel to be deployed for char dham yatra duties would have all the information at their disposal like the locations of dharamshalas, temples, hotels and hospitals aside from the details of the pilgrimage routes to help the tourists on their asking. 122 areas have been identified as landslide- prone areas along the route of the fabled pilgrimage going through seven districts of the state. The police officers have been directed to install signboards, warning the pilgrims about the areas vulnerable for landslides and accidents, Meena added.