Gaya district administration has introduced a coordinated safety plan for Chhath Puja, deploying deep-water barricades, drones, CCTV cameras, watchtowers, SDRF teams and medical camps at water bodies across the district.
The measures were reviewed during a joint briefing on Saturday by district magistrate Shashank Shubhankar and senior superintendent of police Sushil Kumar. They directed deputed magistrates and police personnel to focus on preventing accidents in deep water and managing the large crowds expected at rivers, ponds and reservoirs.
Barricades have been installed to stop devotees from entering deeper sections of the water bodies. Shubhankar instructed police personnel to intervene proactively so that devotees offer ‘arghya’ only within designated limits. The arrangement is intended to keep ritual activity within monitored areas and reduce the risk of drowning during periods of heavy crowding.
Major ghats have been equipped with watchtowers, CCTV cameras and drone surveillance. Urban Chhath ghats have also been divided into 10 zones, each placed under the supervision of a senior official. The zonal arrangement gives the administration a defined chain of responsibility for monitoring crowds and responding to incidents at individual locations.
State Disaster Response Force teams and local divers have been deployed at major ghats. Control rooms and medical camps have been established, while separate entry and exit routes have been identified to limit overcrowding and prevent stampede-like situations. These arrangements place crowd movement, emergency response and water safety within a common operational plan rather than treating them as separate festival arrangements.
The police have also been directed to assist elderly devotees using steep stairways leading to the ghats. At railway crossings, crowd movement will be temporarily halted when trains pass, according to instructions issued by the SSP. The measure is aimed at managing the interaction between festival footfall and railway operations near crossing points.
The administration’s plan covers multiple types of risk associated with crowded festival sites: access to deep water, congestion at narrow approaches, emergency medical response, movement through railway crossings and assistance for vulnerable visitors. Its implementation will depend on personnel maintaining the designated zones, entry and exit routes and water boundaries during the periods of peak attendance.
The district administration has not provided in the reported briefing a consolidated figure for the number of ghats, personnel or medical facilities covered by the plan. The immediate operational focus remains surveillance, crowd regulation and preventing devotees from crossing barricaded limits during Chhath activities.
