‘South 24-Pgns district admin to import specialised anti-fog light from Australia’

Kolkata: The South 24-Parganas district administration will import specialised anti-fog light from Australia to ensure seamless transportation of pilgrims during the ‘Gangasagar Mela’ in January 2024 which faced a major challenge last year with visibility getting blurred due to dense fog.

The district administration is also planning to take assistance from ISRO for monitoring the movement of vessels ferrying pilgrims to and from the Sagar Islands.

A preparatory meeting was held at Sagar in the presence of District Magistrate Sumit Gupta, state Sunderban Affairs minister Bankim Hazra, senior officials of the Panchayat, and district administration as well as senior police officials.

“We are using 5 special types of anti-fog lights to ensure that vessel service does not get stalled due to dense fog. We had faced this challenge last year when ferry services had to be stopped for several hours with visibility getting blurred in fog. This time we will be using anti-fog lights at strategic locations in the navigation route of Muriganga River to counter this situation. The three large towers of West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd will have adequate anti-fog lights. The visibility of the towers help in navigation. We are hopeful of having vessel service operational upto 20 hours during the mela.” District Magistrate, South 24-Parganas, Sumit Gupta said.

The anti-fog lights will also be used for ensuring smooth landing at the helipads.

The state Irrigation and Waterways department has already started dredging of Muriganga and will complete it by this month. “The Panchayats and Rural Development department and Public Health Engineering will join hands for construction of temporary public toilets besides the existing ones. There will be 10,000 toilets in total. Measures will also be taken to curb the use of plastic in the mela,” Gupta added.

Measures will also be taken for branding of the ‘Gangasagar Mela’ and special initiatives of last year like the ‘Sagar Arati’, ‘Bandhan’ and Banglar Mandir that will transform the annual congregation Gangasagar into a living embodiment of Bengal’s iconic holy shrines will also be effective this year too.