Gangasagar Mela: CM to hold review meet today

KOLKATA: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will hold a review meeting to take stock of the arrangements of Gangasagar Mela in South 24-Parganas on Wednesday.

The secretaries of all concerned departments will be present at the meeting which will be held at Nabanna Sabhaghar.

Banerjee is expected to give instructions to the various departments for ensuring the best facilities for pilgrims of Gangasagar Mela. She will be visiting the venue of the fair either at the end of December or at the beginning of January to take stock of the preparations.

The turnout of pilgrims at the Gangasagar Mela is expected to be quite high after two years of restrictions due to Covid.

There will be five temporary hospitals. At least 100 doctors along with 700 health workers will be on duty in these hospitals. Beds will be reserved for the pilgrims at nearby hospitals in Diamond Harbour, Sagar, Kakdwip and other health centres to attend to them in case they fall sick.

The medical facilities will be in place from January 9. For serious patients, there will be air ambulances and water ambulances for immediate transportation to Kolkata. Three helipads have been set up at Sagar.

The Public Health Engineering department will ensure sufficient arrangements for potable drinking water while the state Power department will take suitable measures for ensuring no power shortage and keep backup arrangements in place in case of any mishap.

The state Irrigation department is executing the necessary dredging work of the Muriganaga and Benubon-Khemaguri canal.

About 85 per cent of the pilgrims visiting Gangasagar take the Muriganga river route from Kakdwip while another 15 per cent from Namkhana take the Benubon-Khemaguri route to reach Sagar Islands. The irrigation department is setting up 8 jetties at Lot 8, repairing some wooden bridges and also constructing some ramps to be used by pilgrims for taking the holy dip.