The Rudra cave is located around 1,500 metres away from the main Kedarnath shrine. File pic/Twitter
During the last leg of the Lok Sabha polls in 2019, the Prime Minister visited Kedarnath and stayed in a specially made cave for meditation purposes. The cave was named ‘Rudra’, which became a talking point overnight. As per records, more than 100 pilgrims had stayed in the cave till the end of March 2020
The four-year-old images of Prime Minister Narendra Modi meditating inside a cave at Kedarnath are still a “big fad” among pilgrims visiting the shrine in Uttarakhand. Garhwal Mandal Vikas Nigam (GMVN), a government corporation managing the cave, has been receiving repeated queries from pilgrims.
During the last leg of the Lok Sabha polls in 2019, the Prime Minister visited Kedarnath and stayed in a specially-made cave for meditation purposes. The cave was named ‘Rudra’, which became a talking point overnight. As per records, more than 100 pilgrims had stayed in the cave till the end of March 2020.
“Presently we have only one functional cave and for that, we are booked till the end of June,” Rakesh Saklani, assistant general manager (tourism), GMVN, told News18.
Besides Rudra, GMVN expects one more cave to be ready in the coming weeks. Officials said the cave, which costs a visitor a little over Rs 3,000 per night, has basic amenities like a bed and a chair. Some snacks are also provided to the visitors who have to spend time alone inside the tiny meditation space.
The Rudra cave is located around 1,500 metres away from the main Kedarnath shrine. Officials said the Covid pandemic hit the pilgrimage during 2020 and 2021, and as not many visitors came to the cave. However, now it seems to have gained traction.
The Kedarnath shrine is open to visitors six months a year. Despite rains, snowfall, and cold waves, pilgrims are turning up in large numbers at the shrine.
PM Modi while virtually flagging off the Vande Bharat train between Dehradun and Delhi on Thursday remembered his journey to Kedarnath. He recalled how he suddenly uttered that this is going to be the “decade of Uttarakhand”.
PM Modi reiterated that Uttarakhand is set to emerge as a major destination of “spirituality”.
