Nellore: As many as 54 Nellore district pilgrims, who were stranded at Doonda village in Uttarakhand, were found to be safe and on their way back home with the help of special control rooms opened by the government at Haridwar.

For the past three days, they remained stuck in their two buses and travelled 15 kilometres per day on the ghat roads.

They could safely reach Haridwar only by Thursday afternoon. The 54 pilgrims went there as a group from Buchireddypalem, Kovur, Tatakuladinne and Gandavaram villages.

Bala Subba Rao, one of the stranded pilgrims, told the press over the mobile phone that they could finally reach a safe place after spending painful days and nights in the buses. “This afternoon, we reached Haridwar. Officials said we would be taken in government buses to New Delhi,” he added.

The pilgrims could find their way to safety after contacted the helplines opened by the government. An official from Eluru, Rama Rao, was assigned to the Nellore pilgrims for ensuring their safe return home.

Special arrangements were being made for these pilgrims to travel home by train once they reach New Delhi.

Harrowing time

Kadapa Special Correspondent adds: Thirty three pilgrims of Proddatur who set on pilgrimage to Uttarakasi on June 9 and got stranded in a private lodge for the last five days, safely reached Dehradun on Thursday morning. They are on their way back to Kadapa district.

However, no information was available about 12 pilgrims of Proddatur and a family of Jammalamadugu who lost contact since June 15, Kadapa in charge Collector K. Nirmala told the media on Thursday.

The whereabouts of a lineman in A.P. Transco in Jammalamadugu, Vishnuvardhan Rao, 50, his wife Vijaya Kumari, 45, sons Kishore Kumar, 27 and Vinod Kumar, 20, are not known.

The family left from Tirupati by Nizamuddin Express on June 10 on a pilgrimage to Kedarnath, along with their relatives in Tirupati. They were feared trapped in floods in Kedarnath.