JMC pulls sleeves to ensure all comforts to pilgrims of Amarnath Yatra

Illumination of Rotaries, establishment of 576 HDPE toilets among facilities

Sanjeev K Sharma

JAMMU, July 5: Prominent Urban Local Body (ULB) Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC) in J&K Union Territory has pulled sleeves to provide all possible facilities for success of the ongoing Shri Amarnath Ji Yatra.

Highly reliable sources in JMC informed that at Yatra Base Camp Bhagwati Nagar in Jammu, 187 High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE) toilets (mobile/portable toilets), 60 bathrooms and 55 urinals have been established while at Tawi River Front, 90 HDPE toilets, 40 bathrooms and 21 urinals have been pressed into service to facilitate the visiting pilgrims and others.

They further informed that apart from all this, installation of 299 HDPE toilets, 121 bathrooms and 76 urinals has been done by the JMC at other places while the ULBs at Udhampur, Samba, Vijaypur, Bari Brahmana, Lakhanpur, Kathua, Hiranagar, Ramban, Katra and Ramgarh have also made functional 187 toilets, 103 bathrooms and 100 urinals.

The sources also said that repair and up-gradation of Lodgment Centers and existing toilets at various locations in the city including up-gradation of Community Hall at Kali Mata Mandir in Talab Tillo and laying of floor tiles, water proofing at Ram Mandir Purani Mandi has been completed while the work on a passenger lift at Ram Mandir Purani Mandi is underway.

When contacted, JMC Commissioner, Dr. Devansh Yadav informed that all steps are being taken to ensure a comfortable and smooth pilgrimage for the visiting pilgrims.

He said that procurement of 20 new water coolers and repair/maintenance of the existing 265 water coolers has been completed recently while procurement and installation of solar lights in dark areas has also been done.

"Repair and maintenance of existing street lights was completed before the start of the Amarnath Yatra-2026 and by now out of 96430 street lights in Jammu, 96424 are functional," Dr. Yadav maintained adding: "Illumination of rotaries at Dogra Chowk, Shalamar Chowk, Vivekanand Chowk, Gummat Chowk, Ambedkar Chowk and Amphalla and repairing the façade highlighting at Tawi Bridge and Bhagwati Nagar Bridge have also been done."

More sources in JMC stated that hiring of 279 sanitation workers, 8 garbage collection autos, 7 septic cleaning machines, 3 JCBs and 6 tippers has been done in addition to the deployment of the available men and machinery available with the JMC for carrying out sanitation work at lodgment, registration, token and RFID centers and at other such places.

They also informed that about 14 mobile toilets and 21 water tankers have been deployed at various locations to facilitate the visiting pilgrims of Shri Amarnath Ji Yatra.