section_path: Calendar, locations and preparation/Festival management
section_name: Festival management
paragraph_text: Festival management
  
  The Kumbh Mela attracts tens of millions of pilgrims. Providing for a safe and pleasant temporary stay at the festival site is a complex and challenging task. The camping (santhas/akharas), food, water, sanitation, emergency health care, fire services, policing, disaster management preparations, and the movement of people require significant prior planning. Further, assistance to those with special needs and lost family members through Bhule-Bhatke Kendra demands extensive onsite communication and coordination. In the case of Prayag in particular, the festival site is predominantly submerged during the monsoon months. The festival management workers have only two and a half months to start and complete the construction of all temporary infrastructure necessary for the pilgrims, making the task even more challenging.
  
  In 2013, the Indian government authorities, in co-operation with seva volunteers, monks and Indian companies, set up 11 sectors with 55 camp clusters, providing round-the-clock first aid, ambulance, pharmacy, sector cleaning, sanitation, food and water distribution (setting up 550 kilometres (340 mi) of pipelines operated by 42 pumps), cooking fuel, and other services. According to Baranwal et al., their 13-day field study of the 2013 Kumbh Mela found that "the Mela committee and all other agencies involved in Mela management successfully supervised the event and made it convenient, efficient and safe," an assessment shared by the US-based Center for Disease Control for the Nasik Kumbh mela.
  
  In 2025, more than 13000 trains including 3000 special trains have allocated to accommodate large volume of passengers. Yet the surge in devotees caused a full blown crisis across railway stations, especially in Bihar, where passengers who were trying to board the train caused extensive damages to trains. At Madhubani and Samastipur stations, devotees vandalised six air-conditioned coaches of the Jayanagar-New Delhi Swatantrata Senani Express.
  
  The Kumbh Mela attracts tens of millions of pilgrims. Providing for a safe and pleasant temporary stay at the festival site is a complex and challenging task. The camping (santhas/akharas), food, water, sanitation, emergency health care, fire services, policing, disaster management preparations, and the movement of people require significant prior planning. Further, assistance to those with special needs and lost family members through Bhule-Bhatke Kendra demands extensive onsite communication and coordination. In the case of Prayag in particular, the festival site is predominantly submerged during the monsoon months. The festival management workers have only two and a half months to start and complete the construction of all temporary infrastructure necessary for the pilgrims, making the task even more challenging.
  
  In 2013, the Indian government authorities, in co-operation with seva volunteers, monks and Indian companies, set up 11 sectors with 55 camp clusters, providing round-the-clock first aid, ambulance, pharmacy, sector cleaning, sanitation, food and water distribution (setting up 550 kilometres (340 mi) of pipelines operated by 42 pumps), cooking fuel, and other services. According to Baranwal et al., their 13-day field study of the 2013 Kumbh Mela found that "the Mela committee and all other agencies involved in Mela management successfully supervised the event and made it convenient, efficient and safe," an assessment shared by the US-based Center for Disease Control for the Nasik Kumbh mela.
  
  In 2025, more than 13000 trains including 3000 special trains have allocated to accommodate large volume of passengers. Yet the surge in devotees caused a full blown crisis across railway stations, especially in Bihar, where passengers who were trying to board the train caused extensive damages to trains. At Madhubani and Samastipur stations, devotees vandalised six air-conditioned coaches of the Jayanagar-New Delhi Swatantrata Senani Express.