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Cloakroom facility for pilgrims, tourists at Magh Mela-2021
PRAYAGRAJ: Pilgrims and tourists coming to Magh Mela-2021 for a dip, a short religious ceremony or even sightseeing of up to two to three days would get paid cloakroom
PRAYAGRAJ: Pilgrims and tourists coming to Magh Mela-2021 for a dip, a short religious ceremony or even sightseeing of up to two to three days would get paid cloakroom facilities this time.
The 57-day annual fair will start with Makar Sankranti bathing on January 14 and conclude with Maha Shivratri bathing on March 11, 2021.
The Prayagraj Mela Authority has decided to introduce this facility for the annual fair on the lines of paid service provided during Kumbh-2019. Pilgrims would be able to keep their handbags and backpacks in safekeeping for Rs 20 for 24 hours, Rs 40 for 48 hours and Rs 60 for 72 hours while storing bigger luggage items would cost them Rs 40 for 24 hours, Rs 80 for 48 hours and Rs 120 for 72 hours, informed officials.
For this, the fair would have cloakrooms of up to 600 sq feet at each of the 22 well-spaced out designated parking lots to thwart Coivid-19. The would be in uniform with their identity cards on display. The parking lots would have boom barriers and parking tickets would be issued using digital handheld ticketing machines, they add.
The request for proposal (RFP) for this has been issued by the Prayagraj Mela Authority, inviting e-bids from interested parties with the technical bids scheduled to be opened on December 14. The agency entrusted with the task of setting up and managing the parking sites will operate these cloakrooms as well, freeing the pilgrims from the need of carrying luggage to bathing ghats and sites of religious ceremonies , said Vivek Chaturvedi, Mela Adhikari, Magh Mela-2021.
Each cloakroom would be set up as directed in the layout and have basic required infrastructure like power supply, lockers, boundary etc along with waterproof material for safe storage of luggage. Size of the cloakroom shall not exceed 600 square feet each with their number not exceeding one per every 5000 car spaces, he explained.
The sites identified for parking lots include Sugar Mill (2,00,640 sqm), Mahuabagh (32,330 sqm), Triveni Puram (70,000 sqm), Navprayagam (2,00,000 sqm), Agriculture Institute (1,31,000 sqm), Deaf and Dumb School (14,000 sqm), Devrakh (2,50,000 sqm), CMP College (20,000 sqm), CAV College (15,000 sqm), GIC (14,000 sqm), Women’s Polytechnic (14,000 sqm), Bada Bhagara (2,00,000 sqm), Colonel Ganj College (7,350 sqm), MNNIT (27,000 sqm), Scout and Guide School (10,600 sqm) and Hindu Hostel (5,200 sqm) among others. Parking lots would also be set up at KP College, Government Press and Khusro Bagh, shared officials.
