Jammu, Dec 26: More than 93.50 lakh pilgrims have visited the cave shrine of Vaishno Devi so far this year, marking the highest number of visitors in ten years. As of Monday, the number of visitors to the temple in Jammu’s Reasi district’s Trikuta hills had surpassed 93.24 lakh in 2013, with 93.50 lakh, according to shrine officials. “With a new record of over 93.24 lakh pilgrims, this is the largest pilgrimage in the last ten years,” stated Anshul Garg, chief executive officer of the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board.With 1,04,09,569 devotees in 2012—the highest number in the pilgrimage journey’s history—it was followed by 1,01,15,647 in 2011. According to Garg, every day between 37,000 and 44,000 devotees make the journey to the shrine; he anticipates that number to rise to 50,000 by the end of the year. According to projections, more than 95 lakh devotees are expected to visit this year to receive the deity’s darshan. Some facilities have recently been added to the shrine, such as a skywalk at Mata Vaishno Devi Bhawan and Durga Bhavan.President Droupadi Murmu officially opened the skywalk and remodelled Parvati Bhavan in October. Additionally, the shrine base camp in Katra now has a cutting-edge call centre that runs around-the-clock and answers close to 2,500 calls from pilgrims every day from all over the world. Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha introduced a “live darshan” service for the followers in October.
