It's happy news for all those pilgrims and devotees who have been planning to go for a Vaishno Devi Yatra. As per the news reports, Indian Railways has announced that it will soon resume its Vande Bharat Express train services from Delhi to Katra. The Union Minister Jitendra Singh said that the matter of resuming the said train services from Delhi to Katra in Jammu and Kashmir ahead of the Navratri festival is under consideration and has already been discussed with Railway Minister Piyush Goyal. He added that resuming the said train services will be good news for those who have been planning to visit the shrine during Navratri from across the country.
In March after lockdowns were imposed across the country to limit the spread of Coronavirus amongst people since then the Delhi-Katra train services have remained suspended.
The lockdown has now been lifted in the country phased wise, and recently, IRCTC announced the first ‘private’ Tejas Express train services to resume operations from this month. The Ahmedabad-Mumbai Tejas Express and Lucknow-New Delhi Tejas Express will resume services from October 17, 2020. It is also reported that the Indian Railways is also prepared to introduce 39 special trains to facilitate the travel of people during the festive season keeping the safety guidelines in mind.
Apart from resuming Delhi-Katra train services, the limit of a daily number of pilgrims visiting the Vaishno Devi temple has also been increased. As Navratri is starting from November 17, the temple administration has increased the limit of several pilgrims to the shrine up to 7000 from October 15.
Also, the task of fixing the ceiling for pilgrims from outside J&K has been handed over to the CEO of the Shrine Board. The rules of online registration for the yatra will continue to remain the same like before with no changes.
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Large religious gatherings and processions will not be permitted near or around the temple. After reviewing the situation, the CEO of the temple board will decide on whether to start the palanquin and pony services.