Hazaribag police are planning eight parking zones and traffic restrictions across the city to manage the expected movement of devotees and commuters during Durga Puja. Superintendent of Police Aman Kumar has also directed puja committees to strengthen fire safety, crowd control and surveillance arrangements at pandals.
The SP inspected upcoming Durga Puja pandals in Hazaribag city and Barkagaon to review preparations. Police said committees had been asked to install closed-circuit television cameras and fire extinguishers at every pandal and within a 200-metre radius of the premises.
The committees will also be required to create separate entry and exit gates for male and female visitors and deploy sufficient volunteers for crowd management. Women police personnel will be posted at the pandals, while plain-clothes officers will be deployed across the festival sites.
To regulate traffic, barricades and drop gates are planned at 25 locations across the city. The police are also considering one-way traffic arrangements wherever required, along with the deployment of volunteers and personnel engaged by the puja committees.
“Parking facilities will be arranged at eight locations to ensure that devotees and other commuters do not face inconvenience,” Kumar said, according to the report. The locations of the parking zones and the detailed traffic arrangements have not yet been released.
The planned measures are intended to address the overlapping demands created by festival crowds, roadside activity and regular city traffic. The police said a district-level meeting had already been held with all puja committees and that inspections of major pandals and crowded areas were underway.
Police are also working on arrangements for quick response teams, drone cameras and videographers to monitor activity during the festival. The proposed surveillance and response system is expected to support crowd monitoring and emergency coordination, although the final deployment plan is still being prepared.
A detailed traffic plan will be issued soon, the SP said. Until that plan is released, commuters and visitors do not have an official list of the eight parking locations, the 25 barricading points or the routes that may be placed under one-way restrictions.
