All 31,450 seats available for the Kedarnath helicopter shuttle service between April 22 and June 15 had been booked within 90 minutes of the website portal opening, officials said on Saturday.
Officials said the booking process began at 6 pm on April 15 and the last ticket was issued at 7.28 pm. During this period, 10,855 tickets were successfully issued through the official IRCTC portal, they added.
The helicopter shuttle service offers an air link for devotes travelling from base camps to the Himalayan shrine. Flights operate from Guptkashi, Phata and Sirsi, helping reduce the difficult 16-km trek.
The helpline call centre of the Uttarakhand Tourism Department made 565 random verification calls to monitor the booking process. Officials stated that 4,400 mobile numbers matched actual passengers out of 10,859 numbers used for bookings.
According to officials, 51 per cent of the bookings were made directly by devotees, while the remaining 49 per cent were completed through authorised booking channels.
Peak booking activity was recorded between 6.10 pm and 6.32 pm. At 6.10 pm alone, the system registered 849 bookings, followed by a sharp rise in transactions over the next 20 minutes.
Maharashtra recorded the highest number of bookings with 1,708 successful transactions. It was followed by Uttar Pradesh (1,243), Delhi (867), Telangana (864), Karnataka (801) and Gujarat (700).
To ensure transparency, the state government allowed only two bookings per user with a maximum of 12 seats. A single IP address was limited to five user IDs, and each booking was capped at six passengers.
Officials said 913 seats linked to 510 booking IDs have been cancelled so far. The department added that the streamlined system aims to provide a safe and reliable travel experience for pilgrims.
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