The illuminated Gandhi Maidan on Monday evening. Picture by Ashok Sinha

The state government woke up from its slumber in putting things in order at the historic Gandhi Maidan after 33 people lost their lives.

Though no one paid heed to the defunct lampposts all along the Maidan periphery for more than two years, all the lights started glowing from Sunday evening. New lampposts have been installed with energy-saving compact fluorescent lights (CFL). Two high-mast lamps inside the Maidan have also been repaired in the past two days.

Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) has done the quick overhaul of the entire lighting arrangement following the stampede on Friday upon instructions from the urban development and housing department. “The department has issued directives to the PMC to ensure that all installed streetlights and high-mast lights in the city should be made operational. In adherence to the same, the PMC has repaired the defunct lampposts and two high-mast lights inside Gandhi Maidan as well. Another four high-mast lamps have already become functional,” urban development and housing department secretary Sandeep Poundrik said.

The state government has recently given the overall responsibility of development of Gandhi Maidan to the urban development and housing department. The decision was taken during a high-level meeting held on September 5 under the chairmanship of chief secretary Anjani Kumar Singh.

The illumination of the Maidan is expected to be beneficial for upcoming events there, including Patna Book Fair from November 7 to 14 and the three-day long National Education Day celebrations from November 11. While lakhs of people visit the book fair every year, the Education Day celebrations are also likely to be participated by thousands of teachers and students from across the state.

New plan

Making progress in the task assigned for development of Gandhi Maidan, the urban development and housing department has finalised the detailed project report (DPR) on the same.

“The DPR is ready and the chief secretary has also given his approval. It entails overhaul of the existing lighting arrangement, repair of the existing pathway and construction of a new wider pathway. New benches would also be put along the boundary wall. An estimated outlay of Rs 2 crore would be spent on the development work, which would be carried out over six months,” said department secretary Poundrik.

Every day around 1,000 to 2,000 people visit the 62-acre ground area developed by then Patna commissioner Metcalfe between 1813 and 1833. The building construction department had already done some development work at Gandhi Maidan entailing an estimated outlay of Rs 10 crore, out of which Rs 8.5 crore has been spent over the past five years.

Inspection squad

The urban development and housing department has formed a four-member team and instructions have been issued to them to tour all the ends of Patna for two hours every evening and look for streetlights and high-mast lights, which are not glowing. The department has said a list of the same will be prepared every day and the PMC would be instructed to mend them.

On Monday, urban development and housing minister Samrat Choudhary said Patna would soon be illuminated. “The inspection team will be moving along the different areas of Patna every evening after dark for two hours. They have been asked to prepare a report detailing the areas, which do not have streetlights and the areas which have lights but they are defunct. Based on the report, the department will assign the job of mending the streetlights to the PMC and the district administration,” said Choudhary.