Officials draw up fresh plan for crowd management ahead of tomorrow’s amrit snan

At the meeting, official sources said, discussions were held to ensure that there is no overlapping of the stream of people heading towards the ghats and the one returning from there after taking a dip in the river.

While a judicial inquiry into the January 29 incident is on, eyewitnesses of the stampede have said that overlapping of crowds going towards the Sangam nose and those returning from there was one of the major causes for the chaos.

“We have to ensure that there is no coinciding of the paths going towards and coming from the ghats. This has been done through barricading as well as guided direction through strategically deployed officials and signages,” Akansha Rana, Officer on Special Duty (Kumbh) told The Sunday Express.

The zonal system would, however, continue like in the past. This means that the crowd coming from specific directions would be given entry to take bath in the ghats located in that area only. As a result, some of the pontoon bridges will be closed for devotees, wherever required, Rana said.

At the meeting, the chief minister directed officials to ensure that the route of shoba yatra of the akharas and their bathing rituals is properly planned. He also directed officials to ensure that people do not stop for too long and keep on moving.

“The chief minister told officials to ensure that amrit snan on Basant Panchami has to be a zero-error plan. He directed officials to increase parking space and to ensure that pilgrims have to walk the minimum distance possible. Acting on his direction, SP-rank officers are being posted for traffic management,” a government spokesperson said.

The upcoming amrit snan on February 3 (Basant Panchami) and February 26 (Maha Shivratri) will be full of challenges for us,” the spokesperson added.

Meanwhile, the Prayagraj administration said that works are afoot to increase parking lots on the border of the city.

At present, there are 103 parking lots where arriving pilgrims can park their vehicles and buses.

“Small and large parking areas have been designated for vehicles bringing pilgrims from other states and districts. These parking facilities have been set up along the seven routes connecting Prayagraj to neighbouring districts, including Pratapgarh, Kaushambi, Mirzapur, Bhadohi, and Chitrakoot,” said a senior police officer involved in traffic management.

“Each of the routes have several parking lots. After one gets filled, vehicles are diverted to other parking lots,” the officer added.

Also, for the Basant Panchami amrit snan, the administration and police have planned to implement a traffic diversion similar to the one enforced during Mauni Amavasya amrit snan on January 29.

“There will be no traffic restrictions after February 4,” an official said, adding a meeting of senior officials over the preparations for Monday continued till late Saturday night.

More government buses have been deployed to transport pilgrims from the parking lots on the outskirts of Prayagraj city to areas closer to Maha Kumbh area.

“Around 550 buses are deployed for shuttle services to facilitate the movement of pilgrims. The service is free on three days — the auspicious day, as well as the day before and after the fair. On other days, a fare is charged,” said MK Trivedi, Regional Manager, UPSRTC.

Additionally, multilingual signages have been put up for the convenience of devotees.

The Maha Kumbh administration is expecting a huge number of devotees to throng the Sangam area from Sunday ahead of Basant Panchami amrit snan.

On January 29, when the stampede took place, an estimated 8 to 10 crore people had arrived for the Mauni Amavasya amrit snan.