Srinagar, June 17 (ANI): The government in Jammu and Kashmir is currently engaged in repairing a damaged stretch of road leading to the Amarnath shrine ahead of the annual pilgrimage.
The construction work on the 15.5 kilometre stretch of road was under progress over the weekend.
The painstaking work has been undertaken to provide a relief to Hindu devotees arriving in the province to be a part of the annual pilgrimage.
Talking to reporters in Srinagar, site engineer Muhammad Amin Rather said that a major portion of the construction work was completed and a stretch of about a kilometre would be completed after the pilgrimage ends.
“The total length of the road is 15.5 kilometres. We have magnified 11 kilometres of the entire stretch since last year. Out of the remaining 4.5 kilometres, three kilometres of the under constructed stretch would be completed before the commencement of the Amarnath Yatra. The left one kilometre are few spots like a portion, which needs to be rectified as the drivers face problem in turning their vehicles. We cannot begin the construction work now, as the Amarnath Yatra is soon to begin. We will resume the construction work after the end of the pilgrimage so that the vehicles can move swiftly on the road,” said Rather.
Thousands of pilgrims undertake this journey to the cave shrine of Amarnath, where the Shivlinga is made of ice and is located at a snow-capped mountainous peak of the Himalayas.
Rather said that the width of the road was increased so that the devotees and vehicles could move safely and swiftly.
“Earlier the width of the road was just 12 feet but now we are maximising the width by 18 feet. Now, the road would be around 24 feet in width. So, the devotees and the vehicles can now move safely on the road,” said Rather.
Such is the faith of the devout Hindus that despite hostile and inclement weather, records are broken year after year as far as the number of pilgrims as evident from the number of pilgrims increasing with each passing year.
This annual pilgrimage commences on June 25 every year and concludes on Raksha Bandhan in August.
Read more / Original news source: http://manipur-mail.com/road-construction-in-full-swing-ahead-of-amarnath-yatra/
