Taking a significant leap towards creating a robust response mechanism to address queries and grievances of the Mata Vaishno Devi Ji pilgrims, Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, who is also the Chairman of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board, on Thursday inaugurated a hi-tech call centre at Katra in Jammu. It will remain operational for millions of the devotees round-the-clock.
Terming the call centre as yet another initiative of the Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board towards optimum utilization of available technologies for larger facilitation of the pilgrims, Sinha said that the first such facility put in place will be of immense help to the devotees worldwide as their queries and grievances would now be addressed by providing them information on real-time basis.
Underscoring the significance of the new facility, Sinha observed that the initiative was aimed at providing much needed assistance to the pilgrims to plan their visit to the revered cave shrine shrine, keeping in view the prevailing weather conditions, yatra status, availability of helicopter services, battery operated vehicles, accommodation and other facilities at any given point of time, making their experience more pleasant and memorable.
The devotees can enquire about the booking and other facilities made available by the Shrine Board. They can also contact the authorities in case of any emergency or for any medical help during the pilgrimage.
The LG directed the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Shrine Board for adopting the available technologies and taking various innovative measures for making continuous improvement and extending all requisite facilities to ensure the best possible arrangements for the visiting pilgrims.
The CEO, Ramesh Kumar, briefed Sinha about the salient features of the call centre and the services made available to the devotees therein.
The call centre has SMS, outbound services and e-mail services for the convenience of the devotees. The queries of the devotees will be addressed by providing them required information spontaneously. This facility will remain operational round the clock and will have 6 work centres at a time initially which will be later extended up to 30, with Primary Rate Interface (PRI) line of BSNL having telephone number 01991-234804. The persons deployed at the call centre in three shifts a day will take the calls and provide all the yatra-related information to the devotees.
Normally over ten million pilgrims visit and pay obeisance at the cave shrine near Jammu every year.
Later Sinha, accompanied by the CEO, took an inspection of the facilities being provided by the Board at the Spiritual Growth Centre, which includes Library-cum Research Centre, Conference Hall, Museum, Meditation Hall, Human Resource Development Centre, Souvenir Hall, Havan and Yagya Shalla.
Sinha asked the management to explore the possibility for developing e-Library as well, in order to provide access of the spiritual knowledge books to people across the globe. He also inspected the Prasad Management Unit and received first-hand appraisal of the functioning of the facility.
It is pertinent to mention that the Shrine Board has recently launched many new pilgrim-centric initiatives like online darshan, home delivery of Pooja Prasad and Mata Vaishno Devi Mobile App. The mobile app is of immense help to the devotees across the globe to have live darshan of Maa Vaishno Devi’s Pindi Roop every day during morning and evening Aarti, besides availing various other facilities made available by the Shrine Board through this medium.
