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E-rickshaws to make travel easy, eco-friendly in tent city during Mahakumbh
E-rickshaws with colour codes will run in the fair area to take them to camps and bathing ghats. These e-rickshaws will have different colour codes meant for plying on specific routes/directions within the fair area
The mega religious fair of Mahakumbh-2025 will not only be grand and divine, but this once-in-12-year event will also be eco-friendly.
As part of this effort, pilgrims, especially differently abled and elderly, arriving to take a dip at Sangam will get specially deputed e-rickshaws operating in the sprawling tent city for arrival and return from different bathing ghats, including the revered Sangam, said officials.
The e-rickshaws would operate across 4,000 hectares of the sprawling tent city.
The Prayagraj Mela Authority has prepared its outline based on its past experiences in this regard. Big vehicles of devotees coming from far off places like buses and trucks will not be allowed in the fair area. Rather, they will be stopped in the designated parking sites set up outside the city limits. Shuttle e-buses will be present for ferrying the pilgrims in batches to reach close to Sangam every 10 to 20 minutes, said Mahakumbh Mela Adhikari and CEO of Prayagraj Mela Authority Vijay Kiran Anand.
After this, e-rickshaws with colour codes will run in the fair area to take them to camps and bathing ghats. These e-rickshaws will have different colour codes meant for plying on specific routes/directions within the fair area, he explained.
Right now, the colour code is being prepared for these e-rickshaws. The plan is to have specific coloured e-rickshaws operating on designated routes. For example, if saffron coloured e-rickshaws are operating for Sangam, those going towards Akhara Marg will be red, white, blue or any other colour. This will allow the pilgrims to recognise the e-rickshaw heading towards their intended destination from a distance. These colour codes would be widely publicised, the official said.
Along with this, some charging points will also be set up at different places in the fair area for these e-rickshaw operators.
Pilgrims would need to trek on foot only during bathing festivals
Only on the days leading to and immediately after the main bathing festivals will the vehicle movement will be restricted in light of the heavy influx of visitors. Only this time the pilgrims need to walk up to 3km to the bathing ghats.
Barring days of these bathing festivals, e-rickshaws will be operated in the fair area all through the 45-day fair.
In 2025, the fair will kick-start with the bathing festival of Paush Purnima on January 13, 2025, followed by ‘Makar Sankranti’ Shahi Snan on January 14 and the Mauni Amavasya bathing festival on January 29. The bathing festival of ‘Basant Panchami’, which would be the third and the final Shahi Snan of this fair, will take place on February 3, 2025. After Achla Saptami (February 4) and Maghi Purnima (February 12) bathing fests, the fair would conclude with the Mahashivratri snan on February 26.
