Weather clears up: Amarnath Yatra commences on Pahalgam route again
Amarnath Yatra halted: The annual Amarnath Yatra resumed on the Pahalgam route on Sunday afternoon, officials reported, following an improvement in weather conditions.
The Baltal Yatra, on the other way, is yet to resume. Previously, the Yatra had been suspended since Friday due to inclement weather in Jammu & Kashmir.
Due to the shutdown of the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway, authorities stopped a batch of devotees at the Jammu Base Camp on Sunday.
According to officials, 6,000 Amarnath Yatra passengers were trapped at Ramban following the suspension of the Yatra.
The Amarnath Yatra began on July 1 and will end on August 31, 2023.
The Jammu Srinagar National Highway (NH44) was also closed for vehicular traffic on Saturday at Ramban due to many landslides caused by heavy overnight rainfall the night before.
Union Minister Jitendra Singh informed pilgrims that officials are monitoring the situation and urged them not to panic and to heed the authorities' instructions. The Yatra was halted on both routes in Batla and Pahalgam.
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Due to the suspension, no new batches of pilgrims were permitted to leave the Bhagwati Nagar base camp this morning, according to a police official. With nearly 15,000 pilgrims stranded in Jammu, the Divisional Commissioner of Jammu Ramesh Kumar had instructed the deputy commissioners of five districts to increase lodging capacity and activate Emergency Operation Centres (EOCs).
Several landslides hit the national highway, the sole all-weather road connecting Kashmir to the rest of the country. A portion of the road leading to the Panthiyal tunnel washed away. Because of this, many goods trucks were stranded in J&K's Udhampur on Sunday.
- With inputs from agencies
