The district administration has formed 18 teams to inspect ghats in the city ahead of Chhath in November.

The four-day Chhath festival, the biggest in the state, begins on November 4, and Pehli Arghya is on November 6. Lakhs of devotees gather at the ghats in Patna for the festival.

In a meeting on Thursday, Patna district magistrate Sanjay Kumar Agarwal instructed officials to submit reports on the condition of the ghats within 15 days. Dangerous ghats where assembly of devotees would have to restricted also has to be specified.

Briefing the officials, Agarwal referred to the 2012 Chhath stampede when at least 18 people were killed near Adalat Ghat after a makeshift bridge collapsed.

"Chhath is the biggest festival of Bihar and we have already gone through the sad incident of a stampede," he told officials. "After that, the preparation protocol has been completely changed. You all have to work with dedication."

Agarwal insisted that the officials should try to convert dangerous ghats of the city - slippery and without safety procedures in place - into usable ghats considering the number of devotees who converge at the ghats over the four days of the festival to perform the rituals. Last year, the district administration had announced 37 of the 78 ghats in Patna "dangerous".

The district magistrate directed the officials to visit the ghats. "There is a pre-conceived notion that dangerous ghats cannot be revamped but this year, that practice should be discontinued," he said. "Try to covert as many dangerous ghats into better ghats because the number of devotees will always increase. Go visit the ghats, see their condition, click photos on your mobile and check the requirements and then prepare a report. The day Durga Puja is over, work done for Chhath should be visible."

Superintendent of police Chandan Kushwaha briefed officials on security aspects and said force deputation, patrol, deputation of bomb squad team, anti-sabotage drill will be taken care of by police.

Agarwal instructed building construction, water resources, energy departments officials, Patna Municipal Corporation and Bihar Urban Infrastructure Development Corporation to use the time they have to complete the work according to last year's procedure. On the facilities at the ghats, Agarwal said all the basic arrangements should be in place well in advance.

"Clean the ghats, repair the stairs, set up changing room for devotees, install watch towers for monitoring the crowd, build proper approach roads and set up lights at every ghats, including approach roads. Parking facilities should be arranged outside the ghats, public address system has to be set up for crowd management, closed-circuit television cameras have to be installed and special arrangements needs to be taken for women devotees. Adequate number of divers and State Disaster Response Force and National Disaster Response Force teams should be in place at the Ganga and the river needs to be properly barricaded," he said.

Instructions issued include directions for control room at every ghats and coordination with local Chhath committees for volunteer work. This year walkie-talkie would be given to magistrates at the ground for better communication during the festival and mobile charging points will be set up at every ghat.