Jamshedpur: Preparations for this year’s Durga Puja celebrations have begun, with the Kendriya Durga Puja Samiti (KDPS), the apex body of more than 350 organising committees, outlining measures for a safe, orderly and disciplined festival.After a meeting of member committees on Saturday evening, KDPS president Achitam Gupta said traffic management, crowd control, security arrangements and safe idol immersion were discussed. He said a KDPS delegation will soon inspect all immersion ghats to review facilities and identify additional steps needed to prevent untoward incidents. The city has 16 designated immersion ghats along the Domuhani, Kharkai and Subarnarekha rivers.Safety has become a concern after the 2023 Durga Puja accident, when two people died and three others suffered serious injuries after a truck carrying idols allegedly suffered brake failure and hit a crowd while reversing towards the Kharkai river bank at Bodhanwala immersion ghat in Bistupur.To strengthen coordination, KDPS will form separate WhatsApp groups for each of the five zones. These groups will include local police station officials, peace committee members, and the president and general secretary of the puja committees for quick communication and response. The zonal arrangement is expected to help volunteers report congestion, electrical risks and processions in real time, enabling faster decisions during peak pandal visiting hours and on immersion day across busy routes and river approach roads.Gupta said KDPS will coordinate closely with the district administration on security, traffic regulation, lighting, barricading and other civic services. “We have to ensure that barricading and traffic management are planned in a manner that minimises inconvenience to pandal-hoppers while maintaining public safety,” said KDPS working president Bhupendra Singh.KDPS general secretary Ashutosh Singh urged advance pruning of overhanging tree branches and repairs to dangling overhead power lines so large idols can be transported safely to puja pandals across the city.
