Prayagraj: Makar Sankranti, the second major bathing festival of Magh Mela organized on the banks of Sangam in Prayagraj, will be celebrated on 15th January. After providing safe bath to more than 31 lakh devotees on Paush Purnima Snan festival, now the fair administration is fully engaged in the preparations for Makar Sankranti Snan festival.
The administration estimates that on this occasion, more than one crore devotees will take a dip of faith in the Sangam. Keeping in mind the convenience of the devotees, this time bathing ghats of 12,100 feet length have been constructed. All basic facilities like changing room, straw, toilet, toilet have been provided at the ghats. In order to keep the walking distance short, parking arrangements have been made near the ghats.
Magh Mela officer Rishiraj said that 28.95 lakh devotees had taken bath on the Makar Sankranti festival in Magh Mela-2024, whereas this time almost three times more devotees are expected to come. Keeping this in view, the administration has prepared a mega plan for crowd and traffic management. He said that this year 42 temporary parking lots have been developed, which have the capacity to park more than one lakh vehicles.
Arrangements for golf carts and bike taxis (Rapido service) have also been made for easy movement of devotees. To ensure availability of water in Ganga, 8,000 cusecs of water is being released daily from Ganga Barrage located in Kanpur. Along with this, all the 81 drains falling in Prayagraj have been tapped and the Ganga water is being continuously monitored. On the instructions of the government, extensive arrangements have been made to make Magh Mela open defecation free, odor free and zero discharge into the Ganga. 25,880 toilets, 11,000 dustbins, more than 10 lakh liner bags, 25 suction vehicles and 3,300 sanitation workers have been deployed in the mela area.
Magh Mela Police Superintendent Neeraj Pandey said that 17 police stations and 42 police posts, 20 fire stations, 7 fire posts, 20 fire watch towers, 1 water police station, 1 water police control room and 4 sub control rooms have been established in the entire fair area. Apart from this, 8 kilometer deep water barricading and 2 kilometer river line barricading (single direction route) has been done. Para military forces have also been deployed in view of security.
Crowd monitoring, crowd density analysis, incident reporting, cleanliness and security are being monitored through more than 400 AI enabled cameras in addition to the CCTV cameras already installed in the fair area. The administration claims that due to these extensive preparations, the Makar Sankranti bathing festival will be made safe, well organized and easy for the devotees.