A month before the cultural extravaganza
unfolds at Sangam, the confluence of Ganga, Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati,
the Prime Minister personally inspected the venue with Uttar Pradesh Chief
Minister Yogi Adityanath.“The Mahakumbh
will take the country’s cultural and spiritual identity to new heights,” the
Prime Minister told the gathering at Sangam.
The local administration is working
overtime to ensure that the ancient city of Prayagraj is fully prepared to
accommodate the massive influx of people expected to congregate here. For this
purpose, a whole new temporary city will come up across 4,000 hectares at
Sangam. The entire landscape is dotted
with specially designed tents for the devotees. The city has been spruced up
with a massive investment of ₹5,500 crore. Over 167 projects are being executed
to augment the local infrastructure, ensuring a comfortable experience for
visitors.
At least five dedicated pathways have
been established, including the Akshayvat corridor and the Bharadwaj Ashram
corridor, to ensure the smooth flow of both vehicular traffic and pedestrians.All roads leading to Prayagraj have been
widened to accommodate more vehicles. The capacity of nine railway stations in
and around the district has also been increased to facilitate more train
services and to avoid stampede-like situation.Four treatment plants have
been installed to address polluted water flowing from nallahs into the Ganga.
In addition, 13 sewer treatment plants have been set up to ensure devotees get
a clean holy bath, as per development project plans to make MahaKumbhboth
eco-friendly and memorable.
Given that
cleanliness has always been an issue at Kumbh, the State is set to deploy a
workforce of 10,000 for sanitation and 1.50 lakh toilets will be installed in
the melaarea.m
After the successful conduct of
Ardha-Kumbh in 2019, Chief Minister Yogi Adithyanath said that the MahaKumbh
will not only be ‘Bhavya’ (Grand) and ‘Divya’ (Divine) but also ‘digital’. To showcase the use of technology, the State
government will be introducing the “Sah’AI’yakChatbot” — an AI-based platform for effective
communication for devotees.