Portals of Badrinath shrine to open on May 18

The portals of Badrinath shrine will be opened on May 18 at 4.15 am, Ravinath Raman, chief executive officer of Char Dham Devasthanam Management Board said on Tuesday.

The dates of opening the portals are declared on Basant Panchami, which fell on Tuesday this year, he said.

“With relaxed Covid norms and decline in Covid-19 cases, we are expecting a good number of tourists this year. We are also working on the development of Badrinath shrine area according to the Master Plan that we have prepared,” he said.

The portals of Badrinath shrine were closed in November last year for the winter.

The Char Dham Devasthanam Management Board has started its preparations for the Char Dham yatra this year. The offices of the Devasthanam Board have been established at Maneri in Uttarkashi district for Gangotri shrine and Barkot for Yamunotri shrine.

According to officials of the Board, over 1.45 lakh pilgrims visited Badrinath shrine and a total of 3.1 lakh pilgrims came for the Char Dham Yatra last year.

Of the total pilgrims, 1.34 lakh pilgrims visited Kedarnath, 23,837 pilgrims visited Gangotri and 7,731 pilgrims visited Yamunotri.

The Char Dham yatra was stopped last year after the outbreak of Covid-19. The Char Dham shrines were opened for pilgrims on July 1 last year by the state government. The government further relaxed norms in the last week of July and decided to allow pilgrims from other states to visit Char Dham shrines with some conditions.

In September, the Uttarakhand government removed the requirement of a negative Covid-19 report that pilgrims had to carry with them to visit the shrines.

Badrinath and Kedarnath along with Yamunotri and Gangotri, collectively called Char Dham, attract lakhs of pilgrims each year. Badrinath is located along the banks of Alaknanda river at a height of over 10,000 feet.