Kolkata: The South 24-Parganas district administration is taking a slew of special initiatives in infrastructure development as well as strengthening of security for Gangasagar Mela 2025, scheduled to be held from January 8 to 17.
Thermal imaging and night vision drones will be deployed at various points at Sagar and over the Muriganga River. A mega control room will use a Public Transport Management System (PTMS) to track the live location of buses and ambulances, besides all vessels, barges and launches. An alert will be issued if water-borne vehicles deviate from its designated path. “Due to substantial erosion at Sagar, about 70 per cent of pilgrim movement during the Mela will be diverted towards Beach 1 A. Hence, a new temporary pathway connecting Beach 1A to 1 of length 450 m and width 3 m is being constructed to facilitate pilgrims’ movement towards Kapil Muni temple after bathing at the beach.
The Sunderban Affairs department has sanctioned Rs 27.18 lakhs for the purpose which is being executed by Gangasagar Bakkhali Development Authority,” said Sumit Gupta, District Magistrate, South 24-Parganas.
He added that there will be special beach lighting facilities for the pilgrims while Maha Sagar Arati will be conducted for three days (11, 12 and 13 January). Real-time tracking of pilgrims will be done for which 1150 CCTVs will be installed. “We have laid special emphasis on drone-based tracking and GPS-guided intelligent crown monitoring will also be done using specialised 20 drones at important locations which will be monitored from the mega control room,” said a district administration official.
Regarding security arrangements, Superintendent of Sunderban Police District, Koteswara Rao said that the entire area of the fair has been divided into 12 sectors and seven sub-sectors.
There will be a total deployment of 13000 police personnel, including at least 30 senior police officials. Bomb squad, sniffer dogs, and counter-insurgency force will be on duty. There will be two Navy teams, one Coastguard team and five civil defence teams for monitoring the riverine channel from Lot 8 to Kachuberia. There will be ‘May I Help You’ booths from police and plain clothes policemen on-duty to work on intelligence inputs.
The holy dip is scheduled from 6.58 am on January 14 till the same time on January 15.
