Portals of Badrinath, Tungnath shrines thrown open for pilgrims

DEHRADUN: The portal for Badrinath temple opened at 4.30 in the morning. The exterior of the temple was decked up with marigold flowers. Tungnath temple, 3rd, Kedar too opened at 11 in the morning at Rudraprayag . The deity was given a traditional farewell at his winter abode at Bhutnath temple on Tuesday. A huge crowd of around 16000 devotees visited Badrinath on Wednesday, while in remaining three dhams, Gangoti, Yamunotri and Kedarnath more than 10,000 devotees visited the temples.
BD Singh, chief executive officer of Badri-kedar smiti said, "The palanquin of deity set off from Yog Dhyan Badri temple from Pandukeshwar with Rawal (chief priest) , Ishwar Prasad Namboodri leading the procession from front on Tuesday.The maha-abhishek prayer which began from 9 am ended at 1 pm while Lord was offered bhog (Prasad) at 3. The devotees were allowed to visit the temple from morning till 9 at night when the deity was put to sleep with a special night prayer."
However concerned about the highly fragile landslides zone which trouble pilgrims every year, an official said, " "Border Road Organization is doing its level best to keep Badrinath highway motorable and, is well prepared to deal with the situation as and when weather deteriorates. We are more worried about the landslide prone areas of Lambagad, Hathi parvat and Bainkuli at Badrinath. A protecting wall has been built at Lambagad. The teams of State Disaster Response Team has been stationed there to evacuate the pilgrims, if need arises," said an administrative official.
However the palanquin of deity of the Tungnath was also taken out from its winter abode in Bhootnath temple on Tuesday. It halted at Chopta where devotees hurled flowers at it and sang in devotion. The palanquin reached at Tungnath on Tuesday. However the deity was established in the temple amid prayers on Wednesday morning.
However the aviation companies, nine of them flying from Guptkashi, Fata and Shersi helipads for Kedarnath have slashed their fares from Rs 7000 to Rs 6500.
"It is at the behest of the state government which wants to woo the pilgrims and promote tourism that the aviation companies have to reduce the fare for Kedarnath. The timing and turns for these companies have also been fixed, "said official of one of the companies. He said, those who want to take flights for all the four dhams, they can have to book charter from Dehradun which cost Rs five lakh for four persons.