West Bengal makes elaborate arrangements for 'Ganga Sagar Mela'

Kolkata, Jan 13 (ANI): West Bengal Government has made elaborate arrangements for the smooth conduct of the 'Ganga Sagar Mela' that kicks off from January 14.

Narayan Swaroop Nigam, District Magistrate of West Bengal's South 24 Parganas District said that adequate security arrangements have been made for crowd control and traffic management.

"We are deploying for crowd control and for traffic management. Traffic management is most important thing in Ganga Sagar Mela, that's why we are deploying 19 mobile parties. They will control the traffic. And for effective crowd control we are deploying police personnel at gate itself. So, any accident can be avoided. And we are requesting coast guard to deploy their divers," said Nigam.

Thousands of devotees have already reached the venue of the Ganga Sagar Mela.

"I have come three days ahead of the Mela because huge numbers of devotees come to this fair. And if we come late we won't get proper place to accommodate here," said Ravikant Pandey, a devotee from Bhagalpur.

In 2010, seven pilgrims were killed in a stampede on their way to Ganga Sagar during the fair. By Amit Kumar (ANI)