SRINAGAR: The 43-day-long Amarnathji pilgrimage, being held after a gap of two years, is scheduled to commence on June 30 with excellent and exemplary arrangements put in place by J&K Government.
The government is committed to provide the best facilities for Yatris. Improvements have been made in the arrangements as compared to previous years. All necessary facilities, including traffic management, health, communication, water sanitation are in place.
J&K Government has accorded top priority to provide quality healthcare to the pilgrims coming for the Amarnath Yatra 2022. A coordinated heath care is made available to the yatris by Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB), Health Department, Security forces and various NGOs.
To assess the overall preparedness and response measures taken at critical sites to deal with any untoward incident during the upcoming Amarnath yatra, a mock drill was conducted by the Department of Disaster Management in collaboration with the National Disaster Management Authority and District Disaster Management Authorities and all the concerned government and private agencies from Sonamarg to Amarnath Cave at Baltal base camp.
Notably, to ensure safety of Yatris, RFIDs have been made compulsory in this year’s yatra to help in real-time monitoring of pilgrims by tracking them enroute to the cave shrine.
Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor and Amarnathji Shrine Board (SASB) chairperson, Manoj Sinha launched an online helicopter booking portal for the Amarnath yatris.
For the first time, devotees can travel with ease directly from Srinagar to Panchtarni and complete the holy yatra in a single day. It was a long pending endeavour of the government to introduce the chopper services for pilgrims from Srinagar. “Devotees can log on to the Shrine Board’s website (http://www.shriamarnathjishrine.com) to book a chopper,” he said.
J&K Government has ensured that experience of yatris on pilgrimage to the holy cave should be pleasant.
Directions have been passed to ensure that all pilgrims have a swift passage at the checkpoints and no yatri should have to wait for more than 30 minutes while going into the base camps, an official said.
Meanwhile, Lt. Governor also visited Baltal and Pahalgam to review Preparedness & Response Mechanism of all the Stakeholder Departments; conducted on-site inspection of facilities on both Yatra routes.
He also Inaugurated 70-bedded fully-equipped DRDO hospital for quality healthcare services for Shri AmarnathJi Yatris.
He also held review meetings at the base camps discussed lodging, health care, communication network, sanitation, water supply, weather forecasting, emergency response, fire safety and all other basic necessities.
To cater to the high altitude medical issues of Yatris, adequate number of oxygen cylinders, medical beds, emergency responders, doctors and nursing staff has been deployed to deal with any emergency situation, an official said.
Director Health Services Kashmir informed that 70 healthcare facilities apart from nearly 100 ambulances have been kept ready ahead of the annual Amarnath Yatra which include 6 base hospitals, medical aid centers, emergency aid centers, and 26 oxygen booths have been kept in read-mode. “In addition to that 11on-route facilities and 17 other hospitals available while there are also 100 critical and basic care ambulances kept in ready mode; more than 100 ambulances are available from both the routes.”
He added that all the hospitals on the route will have an emergency response system including all the manpower available round the clock. Apart from that 2 dedicated 70-bedded hospitals are up and ready at Chandanwadi and Baltal.
