Kerala HC order to constitute crowd management expert panel for Sabarimala

KOCHI: The Kerala High Court on Wednesday directed the Travancore Devaswom Board to constitute a Sabarimala Infrastructure & Crowd Management Expert Committee, comprising specialists in transport engineering, urban and regional planning, civil engineering, disaster and crowd management, environmental science, public health, IT systems and data analytics. The experts shall analyse data, undertake field studies, and devise a comprehensive management plan in coordination with the TDB, police, forest department, health services, and district administration. The committee shall prepare a scientific master plan for each season after determining the carrying capacity of all nodes, and shall conduct both pre-season and post-season reviews to continually improve facilities. Further, the committee shall conduct a Geographical Information System (GIS)-based amenity audit, identifying, mapping, and geo-tagging all toilets, drinking water points, shelters, and medical kiosks, to detect blind zones and assess overall efficiency. In addition, a structural safety audit of walkways, barricades, railings, stairways, and holding areas is essential. This combined baseline data set shall form the backbone for all future decisions. The court said that no devotee must be subjected to unreasonable waiting without adequate shade, drinking water, sanitation, medical facilities, or rest areas. TDBs submission Though the Virtual-Q booking cap was fixed at 70,000 and spot booking was limited to 20,000, the inflow of pilgrims was so overwhelming that over 30,000 pilgrims were given entry without prior booking On the first day of the season, when the Nada opened at 4 pm, the permissible cap for entry was 30,000. However, on that very day, approximately 53,278 pilgrims reached Sannidhanam On Nov 17, though the Virtual-Q booking was capped at 70,000, the total footfall at Sannidhanam was 98,950, including spot bookings