Chanting ‘Bam Bam Bhole’, the pilgrims left the Bhagwati Nagar base camp in a cavalcade of 265 vehicles early morning.
The 43-day long pilgrimage to the cave shrine will conclude on August 11 on the occasion of Raksha Bandhan.
With today’s batch the number of the total pilgrims, who have left for Amarnath cave shrine from Jammu, goes up to 17,100, officials said.
Over 7,000 fresh pilgrims have arrived in Jammu from various places across the country for their onward journey to the shrine, they said.
After on-the spot registeration at three counters and supply of tokens at two counters, they have been lodged in 32 lodging centres and base camps here.
The Yatra commenced on Thursday from the traditional 48-km Nunwan route in south Kashmir’s Pahalgam and the 14-km Baltal route in central Kashmir’s Ganderbal.
As the pilgrimage is being held after a three-year break, more people than normal are anticipated to participate.
In 2019, the Yatra was called off in the middle before the Center revoked the provisions of Article 370 of the Constitution. In 2020 and 2021, the pilgrimage was postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. AB NB RCJ RCJ PTI
