Chief Ministers of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, Yogi Adityanath and Trivendra Singh Rawat, arrived at the Kedarnath temple to offer prayers and participate in the portal closing ceremony of the shrine in the early hours of Monday.
Adityanath and Rawat witnessed snowfall in the Kedarnath temple area as they entered the shrine here.
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat and Yogi Adityanath will offer prayers at the Kedarnath temple, after which they will visit the Badrinath temple and perform prayers there.
The foundation stone of a 40-room tourist guest house at Badrinath to be operated by the Uttar Pradesh Tourism Department will be laid today. The cost of the guest house will be Rs 11 crores and it will be built in two years' time.
"The Kedarnath temple is going to be closed tomorrow. I am coming after a long time today and offering prayers here after 11-12 years here. After the 2013 floods, the renovation of the Kedarnath temple has been possible under the guidance of PM Narendra Modi," Adityanath had told the reporters on Saturday.
"I was thinking for a long time to come here. Two days back, Uttarakhand CM Trivendra Singh Rawat called me here. We have to conduct the construction work of a tourist residence centre to be made by the Uttar Pradesh government," he added.
State ministers Madan Kaushik, Dhan Singh Rawat, Chief Secretary Om Prakash had welcomed Yogi Adityanath here on his arrival in Uttarakhand.
Notably, the portals of Gangotri Temple in Uttarkashi were closed for the winter season on Sunday and the portals of Kedarnath, Yamunotri will be closed on Monday, followed by that of Badrinath on November 19.
( With inputs from ANI )
Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor