LG Sinha visits Amarnath yatra base camp in Jammu, reviews arrangements

Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha on Thursday night visited the base camp of Amarnath yatra in Jammu and reviewed the final arrangements for the pilgrimage.

Amid multi-security escort, the first batch of Amarnath pilgrims will depart for twin base camps in Kashmir from Jammu on Friday, marking the beginning of this year's pilgrimage from here.

Sinha, who was accompanied by Director General of Police (DGP) R R Swain and top civil and security officials, took a round of the base camp at Bhagwati Nagar and chaired a meeting to review the final arrangements.

The Lieutenant Governor also met and interacted with the pilgrims. Subsequently, he chaired a meeting with the officials and reviewed the measures taken to facilitate the comfortable stay of the pilgrims, officials said.

He was briefed on the extensive arrangements made for the smooth pilgrimage of the devotees.

Sinha directed the stakeholder departments to deploy adequate manpower to cater to the heavy rush of the pilgrims.

He also interacted with the service providers and took appraisal of the facilities, including logistics, lodging, food, health, transportation, RFID counters and other amenities.

The 52-day pilgrimage will commence from the twin tracks --the traditional 48 km Nunwan-Pahalgam route in Anantnag and the 14 km shorter but steep Baltal route in Ganderbal -- on June 29. The yatra will conclude on August 19.

"The first batch of yatra will leave Jammu base camp at Bhagwati Nagar for Kashmir at 0400 hours in the morning of Friday," a senior officer told PTI.

He said that yatra will be flagged off by the Lieutenant Governor from Yatri Niwas amid high security arrangements.