Prayagraj: The Prayagraj Mela authorities have documented the crowd management drill that was put in place for Magh Mela 2026 to serve as a template for future large gatherings across the state as well as country.Over 22 crore devotees attended the 44-day annual religious and spiritual event on the banks of the Ganga this year and sought salvation through holy dips in the Triveni Sangam. Officials said the biggest achievement was noticed in transportation innovations. To ensure easy transportation for pilgrims, the mela administration introduced bike taxis for the first time. This feature helped over 10 lakh devotees. Divisional commissioner (Prayagraj) Saumya Agarwal said: “Providing easy transportation facilities to visitors was a priority and the innovations proved successful and convenient. The 2-wheeled vehicles were more convenient for reaching the mela area. In light of this, an MoU was signed between the Mela administration and Rapido. The bike taxi service helped over 6 lakh pilgrims throughout the mela.” She added that, apart from this, 20 electric-powered golf carts were also introduced in the mela area. “This provided easy, safe and eco-friendly transportation, especially for elderly pilgrims, children and disabled travellers in mela area. Over 4 lakh utilised the service,” Agarwal said. The first-ever digital initiative by the mela administration, aimed at providing better facilities, security, and prompt assistance to devotees, also set a new benchmark. Following the instructions of chief minister Yogi Adityanath, the Mela Seva app was introduced. Meladikari Rishiraj said the app, launched to quickly resolve the problems of devotees across the 800-hectare mela area, received about 2,279 complaints from Dec 1, 2025, until the conclusion of Magh Mela. Of these, 2,277 were resolved within 2 hours. This achieved a 99.99% problem resolution rate. It was a result of the use of technology that the pending rate of complaints remained at 0.01%.
