After a two-year break, the much-anticipated registration for the annual Amarnath pilgrimage opened Monday in 446 Jammu and Kashmir Bank, Yes Bank, PNB Bank, and SBI offices across the country for both the Baltal and Chandanwari routes.
“After a two-year hiatus, registration for the yatra began on Monday in 446 Jammu and Kashmir Bank, PNB Bank, Yes Bank, and 100 SBI Bank branches across the country,” said a Shri Amarnath Shrine Board official.
Pilgrims can also register online through the Shrine Board’s website, https://www.shriamarnathjishrine.com/, as well as the Shrine Board’s mobile app.
He claimed that a Yatri Niwas in the Ramban area, built at a cost of 32.16 crore, can accommodate 3,000 pilgrims.
According to the source, the board anticipates a footfall of more than three lakh pilgrims this year.
The annual pilgrimage could not be held in 2020 and 2021 due to the Covid pandemic and in 2019, it was curtailed mid-way ahead of the revocation of Article 370 on August 5, 2019.
By then a total of 3,42,883 had visited the cave shrine that year.
In 2018, a total of 2,85,006 pilgrims had undertaken the pilgrimage.
This year’s 43 days yatra shall commence simultaneously on both the routes from June 30 and shall conclude on August 11 on the festival of Raksha Bandhan.
Persons under 13 years or above 75 years of age and women who are more than six weeks pregnant will not be registered.