Haridwar Kumbh Mela 2021: In a bid to check mass gatherings during the ongoing Kumbh Mela in Haridwar, the Indian Railways has decided that trains will not stop at Haridwar railway station from April 11 to 14. While the second shahi snan will take place on April 12 on the occasion of Somvati Amavasya, the third shahi snan will take place on April 14 on the occasion of Mesh Aankraanti and Baisakhi. The fourth shahi snan will take place on April 27.
Trains will, however, stop at Jwalapur, Roorkee and Laksar stations where devotees can deboard. From these stations, devotees will be ferried in shuttle buses. The national transporter is running additional pairs of trains to ferry devotees to Haridwar. It has also built four different colour-coded enclosures for passengers to book tickets to various destinations from Haridwar station.
Besides, a centralised control room has been set up at the station to assist the passengers. The administration has installed CCTV at nearby railway stations to monitor the movement of passengers.
The Kumbh Mela formally began in Haridwar on April 1 with several restrictions imposed on devotees coming to attend the event amid rising cases of Covid-19. The Uttarakhand government has already limit the Kumbh this year to 30 days due to pandemic.
The government has said that devotees will have to registering on the Kumbh portal and it is compulsory to bring a negative RT-PCR test report. A negative RT-PCR test report not older than 72 hours before arrival is required to gain entry in the town.
It is for the first time in the history of the grand religious congregation held on the banks of the Ganga in Haridwar once in 12 years that its duration has been curtailed to just one month due to the pandemic. In normal circumstances, Kumbh is held for nearly four months. Its last edition was held in Haridwar from January 14 to April 28 in 2010.
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