Finally, Amarnath cave shrine gets motorable road

Samaan Lateef

Srinagar, November 6

The Border Roads Organisation (BRO) has achieved a historic milestone by enabling the first set of vehicles to reach the holy Amarnath cave shrine. Under its ongoing road widening work — Project Beacon, the BRO is taking up the restoration and improvement of Amarnath Yatra tracks. It announced this significant accomplishment on X.

Widening project

• Under its road widening work — Project Beacon, the BRO has been taking up restoration and improvement of Amarnath Yatra tracks .
• A truck and a small pickup travelled from Dumail area (in Ganderbal district) to the holy cave shrine.

An official of the BRO explained that a truck and a small pickup were transported from Dumail (in Ganderbal district) to the Amarnath cave via the Baltal base camp, one of the two routes leading to the cave. These vehicles were instrumental for ongoing work near the holy cave of Amarnath. The successful transportation of the vehicles marks a significant achievement for the BRO as officials had aimed to reach the site before the onset of snowfall.

Despite this achievement, the road construction project has faced criticism from some devotees of the Amarnath cave shrine. Rahul Pandita, an author, expressed his concerns, saying, “This is a disastrous move. The cave is under tremendous pressure already. The ice shivling will disappear. Do not do this.”

Another critic, Tapesh Kaul, a Kashmiri Pandit and a New Delhi-based lawyer, voiced his disappointment with the transformation of spiritual places into concrete structures. “I am really surprised how these peaceful spiritual, divine places are being slowly converted into concrete jungles from what it used to be a peaceful spiritual destination in the epicenter of nature,” Kaul said. “It’s so disheartening to see that our main religion places being slowly transformed into more like some sort of tourist destinations,” he said.

The BRO officer reported that the road widening has been completed for nearly 13 km from the Sangam base to the cave, extending from the Sangam top road via Baltal. This road improvement will significantly reduce the travel time of pilgrims visiting the cave of Shri Amarnath Ji, a holy pilgrimage site for Hindus located at a height of about 3,888 metres above sea level in south Kashmir.

Annually, the Amarnath Yatra attracts thousands of devotees from both the Pahalgam track in Anantnag district and Baltal in Ganderbal district. Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari, announced earlier this year that the 110 km-long Amarnath Marg leading to the holy Amarnath cave in Pahalgam would be constructed at a cost of approximately Rs 5,300 crore to enhance the convenience of pilgrims traveling to the Shri Amarnath shrine.

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