SRINAGAR 01 Aug : The annual Amarnath Yatra was suspended from the Bhagwati Nagar base camp in Jammu on Saturday after the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway (NH-44) remained closed for the second consecutive day due to persistent rainfall, officials said.
No fresh batch of pilgrims was allowed to proceed to the Kashmir Valley as repair work continued on the rain-damaged Ladha-Samroli stretch of the highway in Udhampur district. Fresh rainfall has hampered restoration efforts, leaving the road slushy and unsafe for traffic, officials said.
The strategic highway, the only all-weather road linking the Kashmir Valley with the rest of the country, was closed to traffic from both directions on Friday after the Amarnath Yatra convoy passed, to facilitate repair work. Light to moderate rainfall has since continued across parts of Ramban and Udhampur districts.
Meanwhile, the Shri Amarnath Ji Shrine Board (SASB) has shifted offline registration, token distribution, e-KYC verification and RFID issuance facilities from the Tawi Riverfront to the Bhagwati Nagar base camp, citing a decline in the number of pilgrims arriving in Jammu.
The Tawi Riverfront had been serving as the centralised registration facility for the pilgrimage. Officials said the services were consolidated at Bhagwati Nagar following the reduced influx of devotees.
The 38-day pilgrimage began on July 3, and around 4.5 lakh devotees have so far paid obeisance at the holy cave shrine in south Kashmir, which houses the naturally formed ice lingam. The Yatra is scheduled to conclude on August 28, coinciding with Raksha Bandhan.
