Vaishno Devi: Durga Bhawan likely to be ready by December, skywalk by January

The January 1 stampede in Vaishno Devi that killed 12 pilgrims and left scores injured has forced the shrine board to set up infrastructure on a war footing to prevent such incidents going forward, with the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board rapidly coming up with two key projects – a skywalk and a Durga Bhawan in Trikuta hills of Katra – to streamline the pilgrimage.

Considered one of the of the most revered Hindu pilgrimages in the world, the three-peaked cave shrine recorded a footfall of over a million pilgrims in 2011 and 2012 — 10.115 million and 10.495 million, respectively.

Being constructed at a cost of nearly Rs 25 crores, the four storey Durga Bhawan in the shrine area will have all required basic facilities and can house 2,000-2,500 pilgrims at a time every day.

“It will have 16 rooms with attached bathrooms, 17 dormitories (six bedded with common toilet), 28 halls with common toilet, food court, restaurant, tea shop, and a café area. The Durga Bhawan will also have common toilets and bathrooms on each floor,” a senior official of the shrine board said.

The facility will be equipped with blankets and lockers for the pilgrims, and there will also be a provision of free accommodation for those who can’t afford a stay. The building will also be equipped with four lifts.

The project is expected to complete by December this year.

The skywalk (yatri queue management) project) is being constructed at a cost of Rs 10 crores.

The official informed that this project is expected to be completed with the next three months and should be ready by January 2023.

“It has been designed by the School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi and is being executed by central public works department (CPWD) with technical vetting by Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee,” the official said.

“Once completed, it will facilitate pilgrims to reach the sanctum sanctorum and will have waiting halls with chairs to accommodate senior citizens, the disabled and ladies in queue,” he added.

Officials informed that the project was envisaged by Jammu and Kashmir lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha after the January 1 stampede.

“This project was conceptualized by the L-G with an aim to decongest the Bhawan and avoid stampede in the future. Subsequently, it was decided to have multidirectional flow through the skywalk. It will be nearly 200 metre in length and 2.5 metre wide, with two rescue areas. It will be 20 feet above the existing track,” he said.

The skywalk will overcome the problem of multidirectional flow of the yatra and put an end to the chaos between Manokamna Bhawan and gate number 3 just before the sanctum sanctorum, he said.

According to the official, the passage can be used by 6,000 devotees to enter the sanctum sanctorum and the existing track beneath the skywalk can be used as exit.