Haridwar, Aug. 11 -- The ongoing Shravan Kanwar pilgrimage crossed the 40 million mark in Uttarakhand on Monday, with more than 44 million devotees, or kanwariyas, having arrived in the state through Haridwar by Monday evening, according to the Kanwar Mela information cell. Officials said the number was expected to rise further by midnight as thousands of vehicles carrying Dak Kanwariyas continued to enter Haridwar on the final day of the vehicular phase of the pilgrimage. Monday witnessed an intense rush across Haridwar as the Dak Kanwariyas hurried to collect the holy Ganga water and return to their respective home destinations in time for Tuesday morning. With the deadline for the vehicular Dak Kanwar phase approaching, highways leading into and out of Haridwar remained heavily congested throughout the day. Haridwar district magistrate Mayur Dixit and senior superintendent of police Navneet Singh Bhullar remained on alert throughout the day and inspected key stretches of the Kanwar Mela zone as well as highways to monitor the movement of vehicles and ensure effective crowd management. All schools and Anganwadi centres falling within the Rishikesh tehsil area will remain closed on Tuesday in view of the massive influx of Kanwariyas and the expected increase in footfall on the occasion of Shravan Shivratri, officials said. The decision has been taken amid the arrival of millions of Kanwariyas at the Neelkanth Mahadev temple and the anticipated rush of devotees at Rishikesh's Ganga ghats, temples and along the Rishikesh-Haridwar highway. According to a directive issued by the sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) office, all government, private and government-aided schools from nursery to Class XII, along with Anganwadi centres, located within the Rishikesh Municipal Corporation limits and areas including Gumaniwala, Shyampur, Khairi Khurd and Raiwala will remain closed on Tuesday....