Like the Lipulekh route, this is part of India's official government-organized batch system, jointly run by India's MEA, the Chinese government, and the Sikkim Tourism Development Corporation (STDC), with security support from the ITBP noted in some reporting.
2026 season details
- Batches: 10 batches of 50 pilgrims each (500 total) — the same as 2025, when this route already carried double Lipulekh's capacity that year.
- Duration: approximately 21 days per batch.
- Cost: approximately Rs. 3.31 Lakh per person (roughly $4,000 USD) — source figures varied between roughly Rs. 2.5–3.31 Lakh across different reports, with Rs. 3.31 Lakh the most consistently corroborated. Treat cost as subject to annual revision.
- The first 2026 batch (44 pilgrims, 32 men and 12 women, plus 4 liaison officers and 1 medical officer) crossed into the Tibet Autonomous Region on June 20, 2026, after a 4-day acclimatization program in Sikkim, flagged off by the Sikkim Governor.
Registration and eligibility
Same process as the Lipulekh route — applications go through the official portal kmy.gov.in, where you rank a preference between the two routes, though the final assignment is still a random draw rather than a guarantee. The 2026 application deadline (19 May 2026) has passed; 2027 details aren't published yet. See the Applying to the Yatra page for the full eligibility, BMI, and medical clearance detail — it's identical for both routes.
Sources
- kmy.gov.in — official MEA registration portal
- Outlook Traveller, June 2026 — first batch crossing
- Telangana Today