05-10-2020

It was prompted by a steep rise in the number of people applying for e-passes to visit the shrines ever since the mandatory requirement of bringing a negative RT-PCR test report was done away with, the board's CEO Ravinath Raman said.

The daily limit imposed on the number of people visiting Chardham in Uttarakhand due to the coronavirus pandemic has been eased to allow more pilgrims to visit the Himalayan shrines. The decision to ease the limit was taken on Sunday by the Uttarakhand Chardham Devasthanam Board which manages the affairs of the temples.

It was prompted by a steep rise in the number of people applying for e-passes to visit the shrines ever since the mandatory requirement of bringing a negative RT-PCR test report was done away with, the board�s CEO Ravinath Raman said.

Now 3,000 devotees each can visit Kedarnath and Badrinath temples daily while 900 can offer prayers at Gangotri and 700 at Yamunotri, he said.

This does not include the number of pilgrims visiting the temples by heli services daily, Raman said. Earlier, the daily limit for the number of pilgrims visiting chardham was 800 for Kedarnath, 1,200 for Badrinath, 600 for Gangotri and 400 for Yamunotri, he said.