Five days after rains washed off many roads and bridges on the Char Dham yatra routes, yatra to the Badrinath shrine and to the Sikh pilgrimage of Hemkund Sahib was resumed, on Monday.
The rescue of stranded pilgrims was also completed on Monday after over 10,000 stranded pilgrims were rescued from the Kedar Valley, Badrinath, and Hemkund Sahib in the past five days.
Addressing the media, on Monday, Chief Minister Harish Rawat said, “The Char Dham yatra has been resumed. The Badrinath route has been opened for small vehicles. The bridges that were destroyed on the route to Hemkund Sahib have been replaced by makeshift bridges for the yatra to the Sikh shrine to continue unhindered.”
The yatra to Kedarnath was disrupted for two days — June 25 and 26 — and the chopper services to the shrine had started from June 27, Rudraprayag District Magistrate Raghav Langer said. However, a motor bridge at Sonprayag, which was damaged, is yet to be reinstated.
With the bridge being damaged, the bridle path to Kedarnath has been increased to 21 kilometres from 16 kilometres.
“The yatra to Kedarnath is currently regulated. From July 1 a footbridge at Sonprayag will be used for the pilgrims to cross for Kedarnath,” Mr Langer said.
Weather data for pilgrims
Mr Rawat said that soon the weather related information will be provided at Rishikesh to the pilgrims on their Char Dham yatra.
“We are planning on disseminating the weather related information to the pilgrims by sending messages on their phones,” Mr Rawat said. He said that display boards could also be used for providing weather related information to the pilgrims.
