Dehradun: The Char Dham Yatra of Uttarakhand is going to start from 30th April. The enthusiasm of the devotees for this holy journey is at its peak, especially for the darshan of Kedarnath Dham. Although the doors of Kedarnath will open on May 2, but helicopter booking for this started from Tuesday. The surprising thing is that as soon as the booking started, 35 thousand tickets were sold in just 5 minutes. This is the first time that tickets were sold so fast, which not only surprised the devotees but also raised questions on the system.

New experiment in helicopter booking
This time the Pushkar Singh Dhami government has handed over the responsibility of helicopter ticket booking to the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC). Earlier this work was handled by the heli companies themselves, but this change was made with the aim of bringing transparency. As soon as the booking started on IRCTC’s website heliyatra.irctc.co.in at 12 noon on Tuesday, by 12:05 the message ‘no room’ started appearing on the screen. That is, 35 thousand tickets for the month of May were sold in a few minutes. Garhwal Divisional Commissioner Vinay Shankar Pandey said, “This time there is no limit on the number of passengers. As many devotees as they want can have darshan.” Fare and facilities The helicopter service will operate from three helipads – Guptkashi, Phata and Sirsi. Talking about the fare, Rs 8,532 has been fixed from Guptkashi to Kedarnath, Rs 6,062 from Phata and Rs 6,060 from Sirsi per passenger. This fare is for both ways. Deputy Director of Tourism Department YS Gangwar said, “Such a fast sale of tickets surprised us too. This clearly shows that this year people have an unprecedented enthusiasm for the Char Dham Yatra.” Dissatisfaction and questions among devotees
However, this speed of tickets also brought many questions. Some devotees believe that it is not normal for the booking to end so soon. Ramesh Joshi, a pilgrim from Delhi, said, “I was trying on the website since 12 o’clock, but everything ended in 5 minutes. Was it a technical fault or something else, this should be investigated.” People on social media are also calling it a sign of collusion. Some say that there should have been a system to give priority to the elderly and physically disabled people.
Record registration and preparations
The figures so far for the Char Dham Yatra are also surprising. 13.53 lakh people have participated in the online registration started from March 20. The Tourism Department said that offline registration will start from April 28, for which 60 counters will be set up. These counters will work 24 hours a day for the first 15 days. Last year in 2024, 45 lakh people had registered, and this time this number is expected to increase further. Gangwar says, “We have made all the necessary arrangements in view of the crowd of devotees. Apart from helicopter service, facilities are also being increased on the walking routes.” What is the way forward? This incident not only reflects people’s faith in the journey, but also highlights the systemic challenges. Experts believe that in view of the demand for such a large number of tickets, the government will have to further improve the booking process. Dehradun travel expert Sanjay Rawat says, “Selling 35 thousand tickets in 5 minutes is a wonder of technical capability, but common devotees were deprived of it. In future, slot system or priority based booking should be considered.” This incident has become a topic of discussion before the start of Char Dham Yatra 2025. While on the one hand the enthusiasm of the devotees is worth seeing, on the other hand this pace of ticket booking is presenting new challenges for the government and IRCTC. Will this enthusiasm break records, or will it further intensify the demand for improvement in the system? It remains to be seen. At present, for those who missed the tickets, offline options and travelling on foot are the only hopes.