New Delhi:
Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik on Wednesday launched the online registration of pilgrims for this year’s Amarnath Yatra. The annual pilgrimage is scheduled to begin from July 1. “The facility will be available to 500 intending pilgrims per day from both routes -- 250 from Pahalgam route and 250 from Baltal route,” Principal Secretary to the governor and Chief Executive Officer of the Shri Amaranth Shrine Board (SASB) Umang Narula said.
For availing the online registration facility, pilgrims will have to upload compulsory health certificate (CHC) issued by the doctors or hospitals nominated by the state or union territory governments along with a fee of Rs 200 per person, an official spokesman said.
The Shrine Board will closely monitor this pilot project of on-line registration and strive to make it successful so that on-line registration of pilgrims could be increased in future.
As a new initiative, the shrine board is also introducing QR coding/ bar coding of yatra permit forms (YPFs), he said.
The QR code is linked with the pilgrim’s database, including mobile number. The YPF with QR code will be scanned at both access control gates at Domel and Chandanwari and intermediate camps. This will help in enumeration of pilgrims and their tracking on real-time basis, the spokesman said.
The cave is situated at high altitude from Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir and is reached through Pahalgam town. The peak pilgrimage occurs when the iced stalagmite Shiv lingam reaches the apex of its waxing phase through the summer months.
