Pahalgam favourite route for Amarnath yatris

May 30, 2009 - PRLog -- Official figures of Amarnath yatra registration being done both on-line and manually by Jammu and Kashmir Bank Ltd (JKBL) have revealed that about 3061 more pilgrims have registered themselves for traditional Pahalgam route than Baltal route.
http://www.jammu-kashmir-ladakh.com/kashmir-photos/amarnath-photos.html
The holy cave shrine of Lord Shiva in South Kashmir Himalayas has a distance of about 50 kms from base camp of Nunwan in Pahalgam while the shrine from Baltal route has a distance of just 14 kms. However, out of 50 kms track from Pahalgam, about 16 kms distance up to Chandanwari is covered by vehicles leaving 34 kms for the pilgrims to trek.

A total of 72,100 pilgrims have registered themselves for yatra in four zones across the country till 6 pm today when registration counters were closed for the day. Among them, nearly 50,000 yatris have registered manually while 22,100 others have done on-line registration.

A total of 64,099 pilgrims had been registered by the J&K Bank till last evening. Among them, 44,099 pilgrims had registered themselves for the pilgrimage manually while about 20,000 have got on-line registration.

The figures till yesterday evening revealed that majority of Lord Shiva’s devotees, who have registered themselves for the yatra belonged to Mumbai and New Delhi zone. The number of yatris was very less in South India and Jammu zone.
http://alljknews.blogspot.in/2011/08/holy-mace-to-reach-a...
A total of four zones have been created for registration of pilgrims by the J&K Bank.

Mumbai zone comprising entire Maharashtra besides Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh etc accounted for 20,791 registered yatris so far while New Delhi zone comprising the Union capital, Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal etc has registered 19,256 yatris till last evening.

In Jammu zone, which has States like Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh besides J&K, only 2823 pilgrims have been registered. Lowest is the number of registrations in South zone with States like Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Orissa etc from where only 1229 pilgrims have registered themselves for Amarnath yatra.

Out of a total of 44,099 manually registered pilgrims, 23,580 have registered themselves for Pahalgam route while 20,519 have opted shorter Baltal route, according to the figures.

Of 20,791 registrations from Mumbai zone, 10,521 yatris have preferred Pahalgam route while 10,270 pilgrims have opted for Baltal route. Similarly, among 19,256 yatris, who have registered themselves from New Delhi zone, 10,839 have taken Pahalgam route and 8417 Baltal track.
http://alljknews.blogspot.com/2011/08/chhari-mubarak-leav...
In Jammu zone, 1605 pilgrims have been registered for Pahalgam route and 1218 for Baltal route, totaling 2823. Out of 1229 yatris registered in South zone, almost equal is the number for Pahalgam and Baltal track at 615 and 614 respectively.

Pahalgam route has also topped in on-line registration. Out of 20,250 yatris, who have registered themselves on-line till last evening, 10,675 have opted Pahalgam route while 9575 others have favoured Baltal route.

Registration through J&K Bank counters across the country and on-line will continue up to August 2. The Amarnath yatra, which was scheduled to begin on June 7 on Vrat Purnima has been deferred to June 15 by Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) as snowfall on the two tracks was yet to be cleared. The yatra will conclude on August 5 on the occasion of Shrawan Purnima and Raksha Bandhan.

For manual registration, a quota of 2.83 lakh has been fixed while there has been no limit for on-line registrations so far. Registration by the J&K Bank had started on May 20.

Last year, the SASB had also allowed on spot registration of yatris at two forward base camps of Baltal and Pahalgam in addition to the pilgrims registered through J&K Bank. However, this year, the SASB has decided to allow only registered pilgrims to undertake the yatra from both the tracks.

However, police as well as civil authorities were of the view that it would become impossible to stop unregistered yatris from proceeding to the shrine if they gathered in large number at both forward base camps.