Preparations for West Bengal's Ganga Sagar Mela started 5-6 months in advance

South 24 Parganas (West Bengal) [India], January 14 : The preparations for the Ganga Sagar Mela, the country's second-largest fair after Kumbh, start five to six months in advance and multiple departments are roped in to give pilgrims a fulfilling experience.
"The preparation for the Gangasagar mela this year started not from the last one or two months, but from the last five to six months. Many departments are involved in its preparation, like the PHC, PWD, Irrigation, Disaster Management, Transport, and Panchayat. There is a big role of NGOs," South 24 Parganas District Magistrate (DM) Sumit Gupta said speaking to ANI.
The District Magistrate said that the mega control room has been set up to monitor a total of 1145 CCTV cameras to ensure that the fair is safe.
"The mega control room is an initiative to keep supervision over the fair to make it safe and to ensure that there is no inconvenience to the passengers and devotees. That is why this mega control room was created. We monitor 1145 CCTV cameras from here," Gupta said.
Gupta said that wherever an unusual crowd of devotees and travellers is noticed, the information is shared with the police and other authorities.
Speaking about police and traffic management, the District Magistrate said, "In this fair, more than 14000 policemen are deployed on duty, all the senior officers are posted, everything from drop gate arrangements to police assistant booths has been installed at various places for traffic management."
The police ensure smooth traffic movement from Outram Ghat in Kolkata to Lot 8 Kakdeep and from Kuchuberia to Sagar, the DM said adding that many buffer zones have been created to ensure that the movement of buses is smooth.
On the facilities of water transport, Gupta said, "12 to 14 jetties are functional. Lot 8 and Kuchubariya Point have a total of six jetties. There are 38 vessels. We have around 100 launches."
The District Magistrate said that all the vessels and buses are tracked by the administration through the Pilgrim Traffic Management System (PTMS).
"Our PTMS Pilgrim traffic management system with a mega control room is installed inside every vessel. GPS is installed in every bus. And we can track it live through GPS. Channel marking has been done where these vessels move," Gupta said.
Speaking about adequate health facilities for the pilgrims, the DM said that the district administration is equipped with adequate ambulances, temporary hospitals and hospital beds are kept reserved in Kolkata.
"Ambulance and health facilities, ICU facility is located here, we have five temporary hospitals, we have more than 300 beds on Sagar Island, beds are reserved for patients in big hospitals in Kolkata, we have one air ambulance, four water ambulances, around 100 normal ambulances, seven advanced life-saving ambulances," Gupta said.
"Yesterday two people were airlifted, today we have airlifted three people, a total of five people have been airlifted. People hailing from different places are airlifted from here to the hospital in Kolkata through the green corridor," he added.
On disaster and rescue operations, the DM said that more than 40 watch towers have been installed and temporary fire stations have been set up.
"This time we have installed around 43 watch towers. NDRF, Coast Guard, Navy, Water Wing Civil Defence volunteers--we have mobilised several departments. To combat fire incidents, temporary fire stations have also been made; around 70-80 firefighters are there. Since there are many temporary constructions here, the chances of fire incidents are high," Gupta said.
Ganga Sagar is observed on the pious day of Makar Sankranti, which generally falls between January 14 and 15 every year. This year, the fair started on January 8.
The Gangasagar Mela witnesses many spiritual devotees every year who visit, especially to take a dip in the sacred waters of the river Ganga at Sagardwip, from where it finally merges into the Bay of Bengal.