Prayagraj (Uttar Pradesh), Sep 16 (IANS): The Uttarakhand police has sought the help of its counterparts in Uttar Pradesh regarding crowd management and traffic control for the upcoming Kumbh Mela, scheduled to be held in 2021.

Inspector General, Prayagraj range, K.P. Singh, who served as DIG/SSP during Maha Kumbh 2019 was invited to Uttarakhand for guidance in strategy and planning on traffic and crowd management and benefit from his experience.

The IG said, "I shared the strategy, measures we had adopted for traffic and crowd management in 2019 Maha Kumbh and our experience with IG (Mela) Sanjay Gunjyal. I advised them to have a one-way traffic system in Haridwar like we did during Maha Kumbh."

The Uttarakhand Police was advised not to allow vehicular movement at the mela site, demarcate markings and provide transport to pilgrims from there to the mela campus.

Devotees and pilgrims should walk to ghats, ashrams, maths and akhara tents.

"We advised them to ply shuttle bus service for pilgrims to prevent traffic jams and mishaps. Prayagraj police had plied over 400 shuttle buses to ferry devotees and pilgrims from parking slots to the mela site," he said.

Singh also advised the Uttarakhand Police to manage crowd and traffic in Haridwar and divert them to different ghats to avoid chaos.

During 2019 Maha Kumbh, Prayagraj Police had diverted crowds towards Phaphamau, Arail, and Jhunsi ghats to prevent overcrowding at Sangam.

"We also suggested keeping multiple entry and exit points at Mela site," added Singh.

The Haridwar mela site has less holding area (space for devotees taking bath on ghats) compared to Prayagraj, so the IG suggested dividing the area into sectors and divert equal volume of devotees for better crowd management, besides keeping public holding areas outside mela site to control flow of traffic and devotees.

"Haridwar Mela police have also been asked to coordinate with neighbouring district police for deployment of public transport and private vehicles, besides arranging cranes and other traffic equipment at strategic locations," he said.

Singh also shared the security blueprint plan with IG Haridwar Kumbh mela Sanjay Gunjyal and security measures for 'Shahi Snan' days.

The officials also discussed special crowd management with focus on Covid protocol so that a distance of 1.6 metre is maintained between two devotees during the mega event. They also discussed the volume of crowd to be allowed entry to the mela site at a given time to ensure Covid protocol is not violated.