Supreme Court stay on NGT order on Vaishno Devi

The Supreme Court has put a stay on the National Green Tribunal's order which directed temple authorities to open a new road for use by pedestrians and battery operated vehicles.

The tribunal had asked the Vaishno Devi Temple Shrine Board to devise a plan to replace the animals with a battery operated vehicles. The plan was to be implemented on November 24.

However, a stay was put on the order by a bench of Justice Madan B.Lokur and Justice Deepak Gupta.

Add WION as a Preferred Source

The apex court stay came after the temple shrine told the court that it was impossible to open the new road from November 24, as construction was ongoing.

Senior counsel Mukul Rohatgi told the bench that the new road would be opened in February. It will cost around Rs 40 crore.

The NGT had earlier restricted the number of pilgrims visiting the shrine in Jammu and Kashmir to 50,000 per day.

It had also instructed the temple authorities to put a fine of Rs 2000 on anyone found littering roads as well as the bus stop in Katra town.

The Tribunal had also asked the authorities to stop all construction activities around the Shrine.