Adm to house 50,000 Amarnath pilgrims in Lodgement Centres

The Jammu and Kashmir administration has made arrangements to house over 50,000 pilgrims in various lodgement centres across the Jammu region for their comfortable pilgrimage to the holy cave shrine of Amarnath in the South Kashmir Himalayas beginning July 3, officials said.

- NL CORRESPONDENT

The 38-day-long Amarnath Yatra is scheduled to start on July 3 from the twin routes — the traditional 48-kilometre Pahalgam route in Anantnag district and the shorter but steeper 14-kilometre Baltal route in Ganderbal district — leading to the 3,880-metre-high holy cave shrine. The first batch of pilgrims will leave for Kashmir from the Jammu-based Bhagwati Nagar base camp a day before the start of the Yatra.

“Arrangements have been made to provide boarding and lodging facilities for over 50,000 people at various lodgement centres across the Jammu region, from Lakhanpur to Banihal. A total of 106 lodge-ment centres have been set up for the purpose,” Divisional Commissioner Ramesh Kumar told reporters here.

These arrangements have been made by the district administrations of Kathua, Samba, Jammu, Ud-hampur and Ramban besides the police wings, he said.