In-charge Minister for Simhastha Bhupendra Singh has said that about 25-30 lakh devotees are taking the holy dip daily in Kshipra river since first Shahi Snan of Simhastha Mahaparv at Ujjain. This number increases further during Shahi and Parv Snan. Over 50 lakh devotees took part in Parv Snan on Sunday. Number of devotees attending Simhastha may reach about 7-8 crore by Simhastha's conclusion, which is higher than estimates. So far, 5 crore devotees have taken the holy dip including first and second Shahi Snan. Along with trains and transport vehicles, large number of devotees are also coming by private vehicles.
The Minister said that Ujjain Simhastha has become a role model throughout India. It is for the first time that research is being undertaken regarding crowd management during Simhastha. 3-D models of Mahakal Mandir and Harsiddhi Mandir have also be developed. A model is also being chalked out to observe as to how such massive crowds at Mandirs are being managed.
The Minister expressed happiness that sanitary arrangements during Simhastha being lauded all over world. Special attention is being paid to ensuring cleanliness and hygiene at ghats and Mela area. Even foreign visitors to Simhastha are also giving message of sanitation joining the movement Clean-Ujjain Green-Ujjain to ensure perpetual flow of water in Kshipra river. Devotees from America, France, Germany and several South Asian countries have joined this campaign. Shri Singh said that during about last 3 months, Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, Sri lankan President, Union Ministers, Governors and Chief Ministers of various states, industrialists, film artistes etc have visited Ujjain and lauded Simhastha arrangements.
The Minister said that compared to estimates, manifold more devotees have visited Ujjain availing benefit of the holy dip and Mahakal Darshan. Systematic management and control of such massive crowd has now become a subject of research. Crowd management study project has been taken up jointly by the Netherlands, Russia and Singapore universities, Union Ministry of Information Technology, Indian Institute of Science, IIT Kanpur, Tech-Mahindra, Indian industrial houses and start-up companies. Joint camp of India and the Netherlands has been set up in Dutt Akhara zone. Data about psyche, conduct, sense of security during
movement and standstill motion, cooperation with arrangements etc are being studied during the research. Use of drones, GPS, locate centre and best cameras is being made in this research. Objective of the study include chalking out guidelines and evolution of a software for disaster management which can used for crowd management in world’s mega events like Olympics, large-scale cultural events and times of crisis.