More than 3.5 crore people are expected to take a holy dip over the next two weeks at the Krishna River Festival and the Andhra Pradesh government is pulling all stops to make it memorable.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu will officially inaugurate the Krishna Pushkaralu on Friday morning at the Durga Ghat in Vijayawada.
With a paint and brush in hand, thousands of young people are also on a mission to transform Vijaywada. College students, along with civic authorities, are painting walls there to turn it into a poster-free, clean city for the festival.
Important roads that once wore a dirty look, have been spruced up to welcome people from across the world for the 12-day festival.
Shruti, a student of school of planning and architecture said, "We tried to show different aspects of Vijayawada. So people coming to Pushkaralu festival can know what Vijayawada is - like Mangalagiri saree, Kondapalli toys. Also important structure like Prakasam barrage."
One of the key attractions for the pilgrims is a replica of the Tirupati Venkateshwara temple constructed by the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam Board (TTD) at PWD grounds in Vijayawada. Elaborate arrangements have been made to distribute free food to over 1 lakh devotees every day during the Pushkaram.
Police have local authorities, having learnt their lesson from Godavari Maha Pushkaralu in 2015 which killed 29 people, have made elaborate arrangements to ensure safety at the ghats.The stampede brought to fore serious mismanagement and lack of coordination between the various departments.
The prime focus of the planning is to regulate the flow of pilgrims and that an unmanageable crowd does does not build up at the ghat were the largest number of pilgrims and VVIPs are expected to take the holy dip.
The state government has deployed over 17,000 police personnel for security and crowd control. The four main Pushkar ghats have been divided into 22 sub-ghats and officials have been deployed for round-the-clock duty.
More than 1300 CCTV cameras have been installed, and command and control rooms set up. The highly-advanced cameras can read the approximate number of people at the location and thus help crowd control.
“People can go to any ghat of their choice. We will ensure free flow but if there is over-crowding at any ghat, we will enforce restrictions or make diversions. The focus is to control the flow of crowd,” Commissioner of Police Vijayawada Goutam Sawang told News18.
State Social Welfare Minister Ravella Kishore Babu said, “it's a big tourist attraction for our city. We have made very good arrangements for pilgrims."
On the first day, over 15 lakh pilgrims are expected to take the dip in Vijayawada alone. Special trains and buses have also been arranged for pligrims.
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