Kedarnath to take online bookings for prayers
DEHRADUN : After Badrinath shrine, Kedarnath will soon start taking online bookings for prayers as the pooja counter at the shrine has been fully computerised by the Badrinath-Kedarnath Temple Committee (BKTC), officials said.
Mohan Prasad Thapliyal, president of BKTC said, “We will take online bookings for prayers at Kedarnath from now on. The work for other phases of the committee’s website will also be completed soon. Looking at the rising number of pilgrims that throng Kedarnath every year, we decided to start the online service.”
With the help of the National Informatics Centre (NIC), Badrinath shrine have also started taking bookings online.
On Friday, a team from NIC inspected the process of computerisation along with the details of prayers for the website of BKTC.
Harish Gaur, media in-charge of the temple committee, said that since the past two days, the NIC team, headed by Sanjay Chamoli, have been working to update the website with the latest facilities and the work was completed on Friday.
He further said that at present, the new options of booking services online are being checked by officials before people can make the bookings.
As per records maintained by the temple committee, over 9.09 lakh pilgrims have visited Kedarnath shrine this year till Friday and 10.42 lakh have visited Badrinath shrine, breaking previous years’ records.
This year, the shrine has had maximum number of pilgrims since the 2013 flash floods. In 2018, over the span of six months till the shrine was open, over 7,31,000 pilgrims had visited Kedarnath. The numbers have increased despite extreme weather conditions.
Last year, Badrinath in six months had over 10,48,000 pilgrims visiting the shrine.
Officials feel the numbers have increased to such an extent in Kedarnath this year after PM Narendra Modi stayed at the meditation cave built above the shrine during his two-day visit in May.