Amarnath Yatra Suspended Due to Heavy Rain on Jammu-Srinagar Highway

Amarnath Yatra Halted Amidst Adverse Weather Conditions

Jammu, August 1 - The ongoing heavy rainfall has led to the suspension of the Amarnath Yatra from the Bhagwati Nagar base camp in Jammu for the second consecutive day, as the 250-kilometer Jammu-Srinagar National Highway remains closed. Officials have confirmed this situation.

According to authorities, no new groups of pilgrims have been dispatched from the Jammu base camp to the Kashmir Valley due to ongoing repair work on the highway at the Ladha-Samroli stretch in Udhampur district.

Traffic was halted on the only national highway (NH-44) connecting the Kashmir Valley to the rest of the country immediately after the Amarnath Yatra convoy passed through on Friday. This measure was taken to facilitate repairs to the road, which had been damaged by rainfall the previous week. The recent downpour has made the road muddy and extremely slippery, further complicating repair efforts.

Light to moderate rainfall has been recorded in parts of Ramban and Udhampur. Meanwhile, the Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board (SASB) has relocated the registration and token distribution centers for pilgrims arriving in Jammu from the Tawi Riverfront to the Bhagwati Nagar base camp, considering the decrease in the number of visitors. The Tawi Riverfront was initially developed as a centralized hub for offline registration, token distribution, e-KYC verification, and RFID issuance for Amarnath pilgrims.

Officials noted that due to the reduced number of pilgrims, all these facilities have now been consolidated at the Bhagwati Nagar base camp. Since the commencement of the Amarnath Yatra on July 3, approximately 450,000 devotees have visited the sacred cave housing the natural ice Shiva Lingam in the southern Kashmir Himalayas. The Yatra is scheduled to conclude on August 28, coinciding with the festival of Raksha Bandhan this year.