Prayagraj: To facilitate the journey of pilgrims and devotees during the 2026 Magh Mela, fair authorities are coordinating with Google officials to highlight all major routes, bathing ghats, parking areas and other key locations on Google Maps.Google officials said the Road Management Insights (RMI) could be used for the said purpose, and the Google Maps team would soon connect with the mela administration team via video conferencing for further action. RMI is a service on the Google Maps platform that provides data on traffic speed, duration, and congestion for road and traffic management. Mela police and administrative officials claimed that an elaborate map for traffic and parking management has been drafted. Plans are afoot to improve the district’s traffic management during the mela period, and for that, authorities are planning to increase taxi and minibus operations. The mela administration has already initiated work to engage companies like Ola, Uber, and Rapido through tenders. Focus has also been placed on crowd management on ghats, and a joint team of police and mela administration will be deployed on ghats after analysing the footfall. SP (Magh Mela) Neeraj Pandey told TOI that deep water barricading will be done at all ghats to prevent drowning incidents, and an adequate number of jal police and divers will be assigned duties. Moreover, one team each from SDRF and NDRF will also patrol and ensure security at all locations. Also, to ensure that boatmen do not overcharge pilgrims, Public Works Department officials were asked to direct boatmen to print the permitted rates and helpline numbers on their boats and issue a certificate only after verification. Strict action will be taken against any boatman found operating a boat without a certificate. A committee formed to further improve the signage system was directed to begin work on marking gaps and installing signage on the main roads connecting the city and other districts. Apart from this, instructions were also given to consider increasing the number of fire engines in various sectors with a view to preventing blazes in the mela area or to reduce the response time for extinguishing them in case of incidents.