Ujjain (Madhya Pradesh): A review meeting of the works to be undertaken by the Railways under the Simhastha Mahaparv-2028 was held on Tuesday under the Railway Board chairman Satish Kumar. Joining him in the meeting at the Avanti Hotel were officials from the district administration.
The general manager of the South Eastern Zone of Railways, Anil Kumar Mishra, Divisional Commissioner Sanjay Gupta, DRM, Ratlam, Ashwin Kumar, Collector Raushan Kumar Singh, SP Pradeep Sharma, and Railway officials were also present.
The Railway Board chairman gave in-principle consent to the proposal of the district administration to develop stations in Chintaman and Panwasa as full-fledged railway stations for the convenience of devotees. Also, consent was given for the upgrade of the Naikhedi, Mohanpura, Pingleshwar, and Vikram Nagar stations.
Discussing strategies for crowd management during the festival, some ideas floated were to divert a large crowd to other stations and to construct a holding area on all routes. An action plan for doubling the Ujjain to Fatehabad railway line was also discussed.
The Railway Board chairman discussed the development work of the Maksi railway station under the Amrit Bharat Yojana. He gave instructions to build a larger number of holding areas than Prayagraj for the convenience of devotees. There was a discussion on making design drawings of all the routes connecting the railway station, the fair area, and the holding area, parking and other necessary infrastructure located on the said routes.
The attendees also talked about the railways setting up a facility centre where the devotees will be provided information related to railways and the fair. The centre will also allow for purchase of train tickets.
In the meeting, the Divisional Commissioner and the Collector informed that for crowd management, the district administration has made a parking plan for 2.5 crore devotees on 6,000 hectares of land, marking of land for making a holding area in the Simhastha area, different routes for pedestrian devotees and vehicles, a plan to divert the crowd by laying a network of roads in the fair area, and construction of roads along the river bank.
