ALLAHABAD: The UP Police has come up with the first draft of its traffic control and management plan for the forthcoming Kumbh Mela and decided to set up 82 parking slots, including 18 satellite parking slots, within a five-kilometre radius of Sangam ghats.As many as 33 parking slots, the highest number as per the plan, would be set up on Kanpur Road and 10 each on Allahabad-Jaunpur and Allahabad-Varanasi routes.The Lucknow-Allahabad route wil get 14 parking slots while Rewa-Chitrakoot route will get seven.Both Mirzapur, Pratapgarh and Ayodhya routes would be getting five parking slots each.The state government has constituted a 25-member traffic advisory committee under the chairmanship of Additional DG (Allahabad zone) to draft a plan for traffic control and management for the Kumbh-2019.DIGSSP (Kumbh Mela) KP Singh, said, “While drafting the traffic plan, the authorities have focused on the fact that devotees will be coming from far flung areas and they should not have to walk too much to reach the ghats. Most parking slots have been set up within a five-kilometre radius of the Sangam area.”“All 82 parking slots would cover an area of around 1,242 hectare and would be able to accommodate over 5.5 lakh vehicles.”Apart from these, 18 satellite parking slots would be set up at Chini Mill, Pipa Pul workshop, Pooresurdas, Dadhokando field, Mahuabagh, Galla Mandi field, Nageshwar temple, Phaphamau Bela Kachar, Ustapur Shiva temple, Bellipur, Navprayagam, Gangeshwar Mahadeo Kachar, Agriculture Institute, Bada Baghara, Deorakh Uparhar, Imbrahimpur, Kali extension, and Nehru park.These satellite parking slots would be equipped with facilities like cloak rooms, vending zone, health facilities, electricitylighting arrangements, potable water supply, sanitation, police assistance booth, signageLED screenswatch towers and a public address system.“As many as 1,176 sign boards would be set up for the convenience of the devotees. Besides, there would be around 137 watch cum direction towers to assist guide them on the Mela venue,” said Singh.The SSP also said that 1,017 CCTV cameras would be installed on the Mela venue to help the traffic police in crowd management.He also said that the Kumbh Mela traffic police have planned a separate traffic management strategy for main snan days and regular days.They had separate traffic management plans for Parade Ground, Jhunsi and Arail ghat.There would be separate entry and exit points for devotees. We would also draft some diversion plans for main snan days in case of an emergency,” said the SSP.“As snan days approach, the venue would be declared a ‘no vehicle zone’ on a day before, on the snan day and a day after of main snan day,” Singh said.Moreover, there would be as many as 54 crowd holing areas including 20 in city areas, Jhunsi (16) , Arial (13) and Phaphamau (five).

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