Amarnath Yatra suspended from Jammu as NH-44 remains closed

The Amarnath Yatra was suspended from Jammu on Saturday as the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway remained closed for the second consecutive day due to heavy rain. Restoration work continues while authorities have shifted Yatra registration facilities to the Bhagwati Nagar base camp.

Jammu: The Amarnath Yatra was suspended from the Bhagwati Nagar base camp here on Saturday as the 250-km strategic Jammu-Srinagar National Highway remained closed for the second consecutive day due to incessant rain, officials said.

No fresh batch of pilgrims was allowed to leave the Jammu base camp for the Kashmir Valley due to repair work underway on the Ladha-Samroli stretch of the highway in Udhampur district, they said.

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Both sides of the highway (NH-44), the only all-weather road linking the Kashmir Valley with the rest of the country, were closed to traffic on Friday shortly after the passage of the Amarnath Yatra convoy to facilitate repairs to the damage caused by rain last week.

Fresh spells of rain have since disrupted the restoration work, leaving the road surface slushy, muddy and extremely slippery.

Light to moderate rainfall has been recorded across parts of Ramban and Udhampur districts.

Meanwhile, the Shri Amarnath Ji Shrine Board (SASB) shifted the Yatra registration and token distribution counters from the Tawi Riverfront to the Bhagwati Nagar base camp following a decline in the number of pilgrims arriving in Jammu.

The Tawi Riverfront had been developed as a centralised mega facility for offline registration, token distribution, e-KYC verification and RFID issuance for Amarnath pilgrims.

With the pilgrim influx tapering off, the registration facilities have now been consolidated at the Bhagwati Nagar base camp, the officials said.

Since July 3, when the Yatra began, around 4.5 lakh devotees have visited the cave shrine housing the naturally formed ice lingam in the south Kashmir Himalayas.

The Yatra is scheduled to conclude on August 28, which coincides with Raksha Bandhan.