Nishank inaugurates State of Art Media Centre for Kumbh Mela

Haridwar, 12 Jan: Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ inaugurated the State of the Art Media Centre at Neel Dhara Camp, here, today. Nishank later addressed a press conference and said that it was for the first time ever that such a facility was being provided to cover the Kumbh Mela. He disclosed that to support media persons, the centre offered a broadband connection with 100 computers, 10 scanners, 10 fax machines, 10 printers and 10 photocopiers, whose services were being provided free of cost. In addition, a sound proof studio for uplinking and recording had also been provided to assist the local electronic media. He added that 3 permanent cameras of the information department have been installed for live transmission at Har-Ki- Pauri. Five teams of the department would also cover the events during the Kumbh Mela and the footage would be available at the media centre server free of cost. Five editing machines had also been installed and uplinking facility had also been provided. FTP Transfer file facility was also available. Canteen facility and residential facility are also available for outstation media persons. Nishank added that 6 permanent base hospitals had been constructed and 20 temporary 10-bed hospitals and 19 Primary Health Centres had also been constructed for the occasion. Some 264 health officials and 50 ambulances had been deployed for the Kumbh. He also asserted that in 1998, only 6000 temporary toilets were constructed, but during this Kumbh, the government was even more alert towards sanitation issues, therefore more than 14,000 temporay toilets had been constructed, so far. The work was still on in this regard. Out of these, 4000 toilets were of semi-permanent nature. Speaking about the newly constructed ghats, he said that more than 7.50 kms of bathing ghats had been constructed for the devotees, out of which 1.3 kms bathing ghats were of semi-permanent nature, which would be upgraded permanently after the Kumbh. He reiterated that more than one crore devotees would benefit from these ghats during the Kumbh Mela. Nishank also said that for drinking water the storage capacity had been increased to 106 MLD from 63 MLD, which was an achievement in itself. More than 7 tubewells, 11 High Quality Reservoirs and 46 kms of pipeline had been laid on non-permanent basis. Speaking about the construction of roads, he said that more than 90 kms of road had been upgraded. As the weather improved, more roads would be upgraded in the near future. He also said that the closed hill bye-pass had been reopened, which was also an achievement for the government. To avoid traffic jams at Laksar, a railway overbridge was being constructed and, apart from that, 5 other bridges had been constructed. He also said that to usher in the traffic from Saharanpur to Haridwar, a permanent bridge had been constructed near Dhanauri. NH 58 and NH 74 had been joined with the help of bridges. The parking capacity had also been increased as compared to the ‘98 Kumbh. This was spread across 300 hectares at 45 places. The capacity of this parking was for more than 1 lakh vehicles. He also said that more than 100 acres of land had been allotted for the camp area. A permanent power connection had also been installed of 147 MVA with three additional sub-stations, 5 transformers and 38 kms of line. To prevent pollution, 35 kms of sewer line, 2 sewage treatment plants and 12 sewer cleaning and suction machines had been installed. More than 6 temporary ISBT and local bus stands had been added to the facilities. The government had also kept in mind the disabled persons, this time as separate toilets catering to their demands have been installed in different areas. Nishank wished the nation on the eve of Makar Sankranti and the bugle for the Kumbh was sounded officially. Tourism Minister Madan Kaushik, who happens to be the MLA from Haridwar, Anoop Wadhwan, senior BJP leader Ajay Bhatt, IG, Garhwal, MA Ganapathy and others were present on the occasion