With the dates of the opening of the portals of the four shrines – Gangotri, Yamunotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath- approaching near, the State Tourism Development Board has decided to open three more registration counters in Haridwar for the pilgrims from April 15.
The registration would be made from these counters without any charge for both the Indian pilgrims and those who would come from abroad. While the portals of the two shrines- Gangotri and Yamunotri -would be thrown open for the pilgrims on April 18 those of Kedarnath shrine would reopen on April 29 and Badrinath shrine on April 30 after a nearly six-month winter break.
It is learnt that the state tourism development board is going to take photometric registration of the pilgrims.
Earlier in 2016, 11 centres had been set up at Janki Chatti, Gupt Kashi, Gangotri, Phata, Kedarnath, Sonprayag, Pandukeshwar, Govind Ghat, Haridwar railway station, Rishikesh roadways bus-stand and Hemkund Gurudwara in Rishikesh.
last year, three more centres- Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay parking facility in Haridwar, Heena and Dobata in Uttarkashi- had been added. With the number of centres being increased from 11 to 14, the number of counters had been increased too from 35 to 50. Now three new counters would be set up for the four shrine pilgrims in Haridwar, said a district tourism officer Jaspal Singh Chauhan. He further said that the number of pilgrims last year was 90,165. “This season we expect that the number would further rise.”
We are all set to set up three registration counters in Haridwar which would start operating from April 15. Besides, the department would soon launch a mobile App to facilitate the pilgrims/tourists. Once it is operational, the pilgrims/tourists can register even without going to the registration counters,” he added.
The three photometric registration counters would come up at Haridwar railway station, Rahi motel near the bus stand and the district tourism office. “The pilgrims/ tourists can go and register between 7 am and 7 pm since April 15,” Chauhan informed.