PM Narendra Modi offers prayers at Kedarnath temple

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday offered prayers at the Kedarnath temple after arriving here earlier in the day.

PM Modi arrived at the hill shrine in a chopper and walked from the helipad to the Himalayan shrine, dedicated to Lord Shiva.

On the way, he also greeted people who were standing at a distance to get a glimpse of the prime minister.

In the temple, Modi sat on the floor in front of the deity and performed rituals.

Thereafter, he also took rounds of the sanctum-sanctorum as per Hindu practice of worship. He also stepped out of the temple premises and greeted the crowd. People gathered around the temple also greeted the Prime Minister with loud chants of 'Har Har Mahadev'.

Modi also took stock of the Kedarnath re-development project and was seen being briefed by the senior officials.

This is Prime Minister Narendra Modi's fourth visit in three years.

Prime Minister Modi is also scheduled to visit Badrinath temple during the ongoing Uttarakhand visit.

Modi's visit to the holy shrine comes a day before 59 parliamentary constituencies, including Varanasi, will go to polls in the seventh and final phase of the Lok Sabha elections. The results of 2019 Lok Sabha polls will also be announced next week itself.

Keeping in view PM's arrival, security is heightened near the shrine which is located at 11,755 ft above the sea level.

In November last year, Prime Minister Modi had visited the Kedarnath shrine during Diwali.

In 2017, he paid visits to the temple twice, once in May after its gate had opened following a six-month winter break and again in October, before the temple again closed for winters.

This year, the portals of the Kedarnath temple in the Garhwal Himalayan range of Uttarakhand's Rudraprayag district was thrown open to pilgrims on May 9 after a six-month-long winter break.

-ANI