After the deadly stampede on Mauni Amavasya in Mahakumbh, everyone’s eyes are now on the next Amrit bath on Vasant Panchami on 3 February. The Uttar Pradesh government is leaving no stone unturned to ensure trouble -free pilgrimage with new traffic maps and strict security measures.
In fact, on the night of 28 and 29 January, after the death of 30 people in the stampede, there is a focus on traffic management due to millions of vehicles and more pilgrims being trapped on the roads leading to Prayagraj. Local media said that devotees from different parts of the country had to spend many nights without food, water and hygiene facilities due to traffic management.
Devotees mainly enter Prayagraj by seven routes, ie Sultanpur-Pratapgarh, Lucknow-Bareilly, Kaushambi Marg, Rewa Marg, Mirzapur-Sonbhadra, Varanasi and Jaunpur. During the Amrit bath, there are separate traffic plans for each of these routes.
Authorities have built a total of 102 parking areas for passenger vehicles in Prayagraj district and fair area.
In view of the huge crowd of tourists on 2 and 3 February, there will be a ban on the entry of private vehicles in the Kumbh Mela area, which will make a viable option to travel through public transport means.
The Uttar Pradesh government has deployed more than 7300 buses to take passengers to Kumbh. However, its ticketing system is also not free from problems. In this digital age, when people prioritize online booking of tickets, online inquiry and ticketing system of UP State Road Transport Corporation (UPSRTC) appears to be destroyed – due to which millions of passengers have to wander for official information.
Along with the official online ticketing platform of UPSRTC, private ticket booking apps like Redbus and Ixigo are showing wrong information about the availability of buses between Prayagraj and many districts of UP.
UPSRTC’s official platform UP-Rohi app and website onlineupsrtc[.]co[.]On in, Aaj Tak found that a bus for Prayagraj from more than a dozen districts including Gonda, Balrampur, Ballia, Jhansi, Basti, Meerut, Pratapgarh, Ballia, Bahraich, Mirzapur, Azamgarh and Unnao on February 2, one day before bathing. Was not available. Only a few buses were available from some major depots like Ayodhya, Sultanpur and Ghazipur.
However, in reality, buses were available from almost all major depots for Kumbh.
Contrary to the information shown on the ticketing platform of UPSRTC, the inquiry agents of many bus stations i.e. Gonda, Ayodhya, Unnao, Varanasi, Azamgarh and Jhansi told Aaj Tak that many buses are being run daily for Kumbh pilgrims.
Manoj Tipathi of Ayodhya Dham Bus Depot said, “Every 10 minutes a bus leaves for Prayagraj. There are many buses for pilgrims.” UPSRTC website shows only seven buses on 2 February.
Similarly, UP-RAHI shows only two buses from Varanasi. However, a UPSRTC employee of Varanasi Cantt Bus Depot, who presents himself as Ramanand Singh, said that 50 buses estimated daily for Sangam city leave.
Due to lack of official information about government buses, technology loving passengers have to adopt other options including their private vehicles to go to Kumbh Mela.
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