Kailash Darshan Yatra Scheme (Gujarat)

What is the Kailash Darshan Yatra Scheme?

The Kailash Darshan Yatra Scheme is a pilgrimage assistance scheme run by the Gujarat Pavitra Yatradham Vikas Board (GPYVB) under the Tourism Department of the Government of Gujarat. The scheme, often referred to in Gujarat as the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra Sahay Yojana, reimburses residents of the state who complete the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra, the journey to Mount Kailash and Lake Mansarovar in Tibet, one of the most expensive and physically demanding pilgrimages an Indian citizen can undertake.

The Government of Gujarat raised the per-pilgrim assistance from Rs 23,000 to Rs 50,000, more than doubling it. Government figures on the state's pilgrimage schemes record that 2,564 pilgrims have benefited, receiving about Rs 5.81 crore in total assistance.

Key objectives

• Reduce the personal cost of a pilgrimage whose total expense runs well into six figures for most families.
• Make the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra reachable for pilgrims from Gujarat who are selected for a yatra batch but constrained by cost.
• Deliver the assistance directly to the pilgrim rather than through a tour operator.

Main features

• Reimbursement after the yatra, not an advance.
• Assistance of Rs 50,000 per pilgrim following the state's revision.
• Offline claim to the Gujarat Pavitra Yatradham Vikas Board, Gandhinagar.
• Passport and selection certificate are central to the claim, because the yatra itself involves an international crossing and a formal selection process.
• Administered alongside the Board's other pilgrimage schemes, Shravan Tirth Darshan for senior citizens and Sindhu Darshan for the Ladakh yatra.

Who is eligible for the Kailash Darshan Yatra Scheme?

You can apply if:

• You are a resident of Gujarat and can prove it with a voter ID, ration card or domicile document.
• You were selected for a Kailash Mansarovar Yatra batch and hold the selection certificate.
• You completed the yatra and hold a participation certificate from the organiser.
• You hold a valid Indian passport used for the journey.
• You have a bank account in your own name for the transfer.

The scheme places no restriction by gender, occupation, education or economic status. What it requires is proof that you are from Gujarat and that the yatra genuinely happened.

You cannot apply if:

• You are not a resident of Gujarat. Pilgrims domiciled in other states are not eligible under this scheme, though several other states run their own Kailash Mansarovar subsidies.
• You have not completed the yatra. A booking, a deposit or a place on a waiting list does not create a claim.
• You cannot produce the selection certificate for the batch you travelled with.
• You have already received the assistance for an earlier Kailash yatra.
• You are claiming on behalf of someone else without the documents in that person's name.

What documents are required for the Kailash Darshan Yatra Scheme?

Self-attest every photocopy. Because the claim is assessed on paper at Gandhinagar, an illegible passbook page or a participation certificate without dates is the usual cause of a file being held up.

How to apply for the Kailash Darshan Yatra Scheme

1. Complete the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra with the batch you were selected for, and keep the selection letter, the participation certificate and your travel papers together.
2. Download the prescribed application form from the Gujarat Pavitra Yatradham Vikas Board website at yatradham.gujarat.gov.in, or collect a printed form from the Board's office in Gandhinagar.
3. Fill in every field accurately; name exactly as on the passport, address in Gujarat, yatra batch and dates, and bank account details with IFSC code.
4. Attach self-attested copies of the participation certificate, selection certificate, passport, residence proof and bank passbook page.
5. Submit the application to the Gujarat Pavitra Yatradham Vikas Board at Dr Jivraj Mehta Bhavan, Gandhinagar, in person or by post, and take an inward or acknowledgement number.
6. Keep a photocopy of the complete submitted set. If the Board asks for a clarification later, this is what lets you respond in a day rather than a month.
7. Follow up on verification by telephone, quoting the inward number.
8. Receive the assistance by transfer into the bank account named on the form once the claim is approved.

How to apply offline at the Board office

1. Visit the Gujarat Pavitra Yatradham Vikas Board, Block 2 and 3, 1st floor, Dr Jivraj Mehta Bhavan, Gandhinagar.
2. Ask for the current Kailash Mansarovar assistance form and the annexure list applicable to the year you travelled — the Board issues year-wise notices.
3. Submit the filled form with annexures and collect the acknowledgement.
4. Contact +91 79 23252459 or +91 79 23252458, or email gpyvb@gujarat.gov.in, for follow-up.

Offline is the working route for the assistance claim. The Board's website carries the yatra application and login pages and publishes notices when a batch of assistance payments is released, so it is worth checking before making the trip to Gandhinagar.

How much benefit does the Kailash Darshan Yatra Scheme provide?

The assistance is a fixed amount per pilgrim, revised upward to Rs 50,000 from the earlier Rs 23,000. It is not a percentage of the actual trip cost, so a pilgrim who spent Rs 2 lakh and one who spent Rs 1.5 lakh receive the same amount.

Set against the total figures released by the state; 2,564 pilgrims and about Rs 5.81 crore, the scheme is deliberately small and selective, reflecting the limited number of Kailash Mansarovar slots available to Indian pilgrims in any year. Each pilgrim in a family files separately, and the payment reaches each approved pilgrim's own bank account.

How to check your Kailash Darshan application status

1. Keep the acknowledgement or inward number issued at submission.
2. Watch yatradham.gujarat.gov.in for notices about assistance payments released for your yatra year.
3. Use the applicant login on the Board's site if one was created for your application round.
4. Telephone the Board on +91 79 23252459 or +91 79 23252458 with your name, yatra year and inward number.

Common reasons Kailash Darshan claims are rejected

• Missing selection certificate, which the Board treats as the proof that the applicant was a legitimate member of a yatra batch.
• Participation certificate without dates or without the pilgrim's name as it appears on the passport.
• Residence in Gujarat not established by an acceptable document.
• Name mismatch across passport, certificate and bank account.
• Repeat claim for a benefit already drawn.
• Bank details wrong or unreadable, which stops the transfer even after the claim is sanctioned.
• Claim filed long after the yatra. Secondary guides describe a window of roughly 90 days from completion of the journey; the Board's own year-wise notice is the authority on the exact last date, so confirm it before you file rather than relying on a third-party figure.

Key dates to remember

The Kailash Mansarovar Yatra runs in the summer months, and Gujarat's assistance claims follow the batch calendar for that year. The Board issues year-wise notices rather than a single fixed annual deadline, so the practical rule is to file the claim as soon as the yatra is over and the certificates are in hand. The safest approach is to collect the participation and selection certificates before dispersing from the batch, because tracing an organiser months later is the single most common delay in this scheme.

How to raise a grievance

• Gujarat Pavitra Yatradham Vikas Board, Block 2 and 3, 1st floor, Dr Jivraj Mehta Bhavan, Gandhinagar 382016. Phone +91 79 23252459 or +91 79 23252458.
• Email: gpyvb@gujarat.gov.in
• Tourism Department, Government of Gujarat, for escalation above the Board.

There is no application fee for the assistance claim. A tour operator may charge for the yatra package itself, but no operator or agent can charge a commission for the state assistance. The Board pays the pilgrim's own bank account directly.