Accommodation mgmt system launched for Vaishno Devi pilgrims

Jammu, December 28

Adding another technology-driven initiative for providing an optimal pilgrimage experience to the devotees, Anshul Garg, Chief Executive Officer, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board, on Wednesday launched an accommodation management system at the Enquiry and Reservation Counter at Katra.

With the robust accommodation management system in place, the check-in and check-out of the pilgrims would become easier and less time consuming. Besides, the financial transactions pertaining to payments on account of reservations will be secured. In addition, it will also increase the room allotment efficiency of the shrine board, thus benefiting more number of pilgrims.

Recently, an online booking facility for the passenger ropeway was launched from Vaishno Devi Bhawan to the Bhairon temple. The online quota for the facility has been increased to 3,000 tickets per day from January 2024 onwards. “The shrine board has made concerted efforts for adoption of a number of emerging technologies and response mechanisms for state-of-the-art facilities. These include a live darshan facility for the benefit of devotees across the world, particularly those who are not able to visit the shrine physically. This initiative has been taken by the shrine board with the view to maximise the use of available technology and digitisation for the larger facilitation of devotees,” an official spokesperson said.

According to the official, the shrine board has on similar lines integrated digital payments in the various sale units of the board to minimise cash transactions by installation of self-serve kiosk machines, QR codes, UPI payments and also on-boarding popular digital platforms for donations and sale of prasad (sanctified sweet).

In addition, to provide information to pilgrims, a bilingual interactive chatbot “Shakti” has been developed for the official website.