Chamoli:- Resources are being developed for the convenience of pilgrims in Uttarakhand Chardham Yatra, under which the process of payment of eco-tourism fee to be made by Nagar Panchayat Badrinath at Badrinath Dham has now been simplified. For this, the FASTag facility has been launched by the Nagar Panchayat in Dham from Thursday.
District Magistrate Sandeep Tiwari virtually inaugurated the FASTag facility at Badrinath Dham. District Magistrate Sandeep Tiwari said that eco tourism fee is charged from the pilgrims vehicles coming on the journey to Badrinath Dham. It was currently being operated with the facility of cash and QR code payments. Due to the high influx of pilgrims, there was a traffic jam at Dev Darshan here during the visit to Badrinath Dham. In view of this, the FASTag facility has now been started here to pay eco-tourist fees.
Sunil Purohit, executive officer of Nagar Panchayat Badrinath, said that since the gazette notification in the year 2022, eco tourism fee is charged from the vehicles coming to the shrine. Under this, a sum of 60 rupees is taken from a four-wheeler vehicle, 100 rupees from a tempo traveler/mini bus, 120 rupees from a bus and 1 thousand rupees from a helicopter. From this income, money is spent on tourism development, solid waste management, development work, deployment of additional staff during the Chardham Yatra, barrier operation and organization of tourism festival etc. in Dham.
In such a situation, pilgrims were facing problems to pay eco-tourist fees due to the day-to-day increase in the yatra to Badrinath Dham. In view of this, the Nagar Panchayat has made a plan and with the technical support of Park Plus Company, the FASTag facility has been started operating at the highest altitude in the country, so that now the pilgrims will not have to face problems at the time of entering the Dham
