Kainchi Dham sits in a narrow valley with one road through it, which is why parking here is rationed. Seen in August 2016. Photo © Lalit.bhandari86, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
On a weekday you can drive to the temple. On a Saturday or Sunday you park 9 to 16 km short and take a shuttle. Where the lots are, what is published and what is not.
The short answer: on an ordinary weekday you can drive to Kainchi Dham and park beside the temple, where a new multi-storey car park has its basement open. On Saturdays and Sundays it is different. Under an order from Nainital SSP Dr Manjunath T.C., reported by Amar Ujala on 9 May 2026 and reissued weekend after weekend since, taxis and two-wheelers are barred from the Kainchi area. Private cars coming via Bhimtal park at Vikas Bhawan in Bhimtal; those coming via Nainital and Gethia park at the Bhowali Sanatorium lot, and everyone goes on by shuttle. No parking fee or weekend shuttle fare has been published, and the hours have changed from one plan to the next.
By Nandini Upreti, Contributor, Almora. About the author ↓
Kainchi’s parking rules are police orders, issued for a weekend or a long weekend at a time. They are not a permanent notification, so this box is the part of the page that goes out of date first.
Checked 9 October 2026
Kainchi Dham sits in the narrow Shipra valley, on the one road from Bhowali towards Almora. There is no second road and very little flat ground, and with daily arrivals that Amar Ujala put at 20,000 to 22,000 rising to about 27,000, and more than 40,000 on weekends (3 October 2026), parking is what the police manage first. The long weekend of 2 to 4 October went past that: about 40,000 by Amar Ujala’s count, and more than 50,000 in a single day by Aaj Tak’s. Neem Karoli Baba chose the spot in 1962 for the forest where an older saint had meditated, not for its access; the story of Neem Karoli Baba tells how.
The park-and-shuttle idea is older than this year. On 26 March 2025 the Kumaon IG, Riddhim Agrawal, started a shuttle for pilgrims who parked at the Industrial Area in Bhimtal or on the bypass near Bhowali, about 15 km from the temple, ETV Bharat reported. That scheme ran from 8 AM to 2 PM on ordinary days and 7 AM to 8 PM at weekends and festivals.
The 2026 version is weekend-only and stricter. Amar Ujala reported a Saturday and Sunday plan from the SSP on 15 March 2026 with the two lots that are still used. On 9 May 2026 the same paper reported the order that most visitors now run into: taxis and two-wheelers fully barred from Kainchi Dham on Saturdays and Sundays, diversions from 9 AM to 10 PM, and heavy vehicles kept off the road from 6 AM to 11 PM. Private cars are not banned. They are sent to the lots.
The order has been reissued through the summer and autumn, and the wording shifts a little each time. The plan for 2 to 4 October spoke of stopping the “unnecessary entry” of taxis and two-wheeler taxis. In practice, police at the junctions decide who goes through, so plan on the strict reading.
If your route to Kainchi runs through Bhimtal, the weekend orders send you to the Vikas Bhawan parking in Bhimtal, and a shuttle takes you on via Bhowali to the temple. Bhimtal is about 16 km from Kainchi by road, which is why we suggest it as a base in where to stay for Kainchi Dham: on a weekend you would be parking there anyway.
Neither the police nor the district has published the lot’s capacity or a parking charge. On 3 October 2026 the district magistrate told Amar Ujala that more parking sites at Bhimtal were still being identified, which tells you the current lot fills on the heaviest days.
If you are coming from Nainital, down through Gethia to Bhowali, the orders send you to the Bhowali Sanatorium parking. In the 2025 scheme this was described as the stretch of the Kainchi bypass near the Sanatorium. Bhowali is 9 km from the temple by the district administration’s figure. Aaj Tak’s report of 3 October 2026 named three shuttle points in all: Bhimtal Vikas Bhawan, Bhowali Chowk and the Sanatorium.
The orders name the lots by direction of approach and say nothing separate about the main road from Haldwani through Jeolikot, which reaches Bhowali directly. On a plan weekend you will be directed by police at the junctions; both lots are on the Haldwani side of the temple, so either way the last stretch is by shuttle.
Every 2026 order says the same thing about the last stretch: pilgrims go on “by shuttle or public transport”. What none of them publishes is a fare, a timetable or the size of the fleet for an ordinary weekend. We checked the March, May, September and October orders.
So treat the shuttle as a shared ride you pay for in cash at the lot, and expect a wait at the busiest hours. The only shuttle hours on record are the 2025 ones, 7 AM to 8 PM at weekends. The fixed fares you may have seen, Rs 150 from Haldwani or Kathgodam, Rs 100 from Bhimtal or Nainital and Rs 50 from Bhowali or Khairna, were set by the Regional Transport Office for the 15 June foundation day only.
If you would rather not drive at all, the KMOU through buses from Haldwani stop at Kainchi and are a different kind of answer to the same problem. The fare, the morning timetable and the awkward return are in our Kainchi Dham bus guide.
From Monday to Friday there is no diversion and you can drive to the temple. The parking there is changing. A multi-storey car park is being built beside the temple complex. On 9 June 2026 officials inspecting it said the two-storey structure was complete, the car park would hold 330 vehicles and 180 spaces were ready for use (Uttarakhand Morning Post). A state government round-up on 12 September 2026 described it as a multi-level car park for more than 500 vehicles, over 300 cars and over 200 two-wheelers (Asianet News Hindi). On 3 October 2026 Amar Ujala reported that the basement was in use and the first floor still under construction.
The figures differ because the project has grown and is not finished; plan on the basement and a queue. The thing that jams the valley is cars stopped along the road near the gate. Haphazard roadside parking was blamed for a 2 km jam in June 2026, and the September weekend order banned it outright. On a weekday, arrive before about 8 AM, which also suits the darshan window in Kainchi Dham darshan timings.
Less is published here than you would expect.
Two-wheelers are the vehicles the weekend order targets most directly. Since May they have been barred from the Kainchi area on Saturdays and Sundays. The orders we read do not say where riders should leave their bikes, so on a weekend the honest advice is not to ride up at all. Over the 2 to 4 October long weekend police also restricted rental bikes, News24 reported, and on 6 October the commissioner’s meeting told police to act against unlicensed bike taxis.
Taxis are kept out of the temple area on weekends too. A cab from Kathgodam or Haldwani takes you as far as the parking and you go on by shuttle, which matters if you have hired a car for the day: agree with the driver where the car will wait. Over the same long weekend, police at Ranibagh and Kaladhungi were told to let through only vehicles whose passengers had a confirmed hotel booking in the hills (News24, 3 October 2026). That was a long-weekend measure, but it shows how far the police will go on the worst days.
None of this applies from Monday to Friday, when taxis and two-wheelers can drive to the temple as before.
The temple’s foundation day is a separate operation. In 2026 the police order ran from 13 to 16 June, the road from Bhowali to the temple was closed to private vehicles, parking was assigned by direction of approach at lots that included Bhimtal, Vikas Bhawan, Metropole and DSA Flats in Nainital, and the shuttles ran at the fixed fares above. Read our foundation day traffic plan and shuttle guide if your dates fall anywhere near the middle of June.
One thing that is not coming soon: a ropeway to Kainchi. The survey reported complete on 3 October is for a Ranibagh to Hanumangarhi ropeway, and even that is a proposal.
On Saturdays and Sundays Nainital Police send private cars to two lots and run a shuttle from both. If you come via Bhimtal, park at Vikas Bhawan in Bhimtal. If you come via Nainital and Gethia, park at the Bhowali Sanatorium lot. Taxis and two-wheelers are barred from the temple area on those days. The hours change from one weekend plan to the next, so check the latest order before you leave.
Yes, on ordinary weekdays. A multi-storey car park is being built beside the temple: officials said 180 spaces were ready on 9 June 2026, and Amar Ujala reported on 3 October 2026 that the basement was in use and the first floor still under construction. Roadside parking near the gate causes the worst jams and is banned on weekend plan days. Arrive early, before about 8 AM.
We could not find a published rate. No notice from the district, the police or the temple trust gives a parking fee, and the figures travellers quote online run from Rs 50 to Rs 200 without dates. Carry cash in small notes. The weekend shuttle fare has not been published either; the fixed Rs 150, Rs 100 and Rs 50 fares were set for the 15 June foundation day only.
No. Since the order reported by Amar Ujala on 9 May 2026, taxis and two-wheelers have been barred from the Kainchi area on Saturdays and Sundays. Over the 2 to 4 October 2026 long weekend police also stopped rental bikes. On weekdays two-wheelers can still ride to the temple, and the new car park has two-wheeler space planned.
Only as far as the parking. On Saturdays and Sundays taxis are kept out of the temple area, so a cab from Kathgodam or Haldwani drops you at the Bhimtal or Bhowali lot and you continue by shuttle. On weekdays a taxi can drive you to the temple. If you are booking a return cab for a weekend, agree where it will wait before you set off.