IRCTC to start its helicopter service for Kedarnath Dham on March 31; Check temple opening date

Kedarnath Dham Helicopter Service: The online booking of helicopter service for Kedarnath Dham will start on March 31. Passengers, for the first time, can book their tickets from the IRCTC website after online registration for Kedarnath.

The Uttarakhand government has given the responsibility of booking helicopters for Kedarnath to IRCTC for transparency in ticket booking and to prevent it from selling via unauthorised way.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed between Uttarakhand Civil Aviation Development Authority and IRCTC. The trial of the platform prepared for online booking will be completed by this month's end.

The Kedarnath temple of Lord Shiva is situated in the upper Garhwal Himalayas. After nearly six months of closure, the portals of Kedarnath are re-opening on April 25, 2023.

The gates of the Himalayan temple will open to devotees at 6.20 am on April 25, said PTI citing Badrinath-Kedarnath Mandir Samiti sources.

Kedarnath Dham Booking

Booking of tickets for Kedarnath Helicopter Service will start on April 1. Earlier, the booking of a helicopter for Kedarnath Dham was done through Pawan Hans, which used to provide 12 helicopter flights from Phata to Kedarnath. Devotees had to book tickets through its website.

Registrations for Char Dham

So far, more than 6 lakh devotees have registered for the Char Dham Yatra. The process of registration started in February. As many as 5.97 lakh registrations have been done for Kedarnath Yatra and around 1.9 lakh passengers have registered for Badrinath. 

This year the doors of Kedarnath Dham will open on 25 April and the doors of Badrinath Dham will open on 27 April. Similarly, the doors of Yamunotri and Gangotri Dham will open on 22 April.