Sultanganj: Hardly four days are left for the month-long Shravani Mela but hundreds of kanwariyas (saffron-clad pilgrims) mostly from Bengal have started arriving.The mela would be inaugurated on July 27 but 30,000-40,000 kanwariyas are lifting water from the dangerous ghats to start their journey to Deoghar.

"The river ghats are very dangerous. Some of us narrowly escaped when a big chunk of soil from the river bank fell beside us when we were taking bath at Jahaj Ghat," said Gourango Pal, a pilgrim from Malda in Bengal. Rise in water level along with the swift current of the Ganga has triggered panic as massive land erosion has started. Sidi Ghat and Jahaj Ghat, two important river ghats, have become unsafe. "Heavy water current has started damaging the river ghats here which also became very slippery," admitted an official.

Pranav Kumar, district magistrate, Bhagalpur, who visited Sultanganj on Monday, said the condition of the ghats have improved. Engineers of flood control division of the water resources department have been asked to keep vigil on the ghats besides barricading the danger points, he said.

He said with the help of sand bags, the problem of slippery ghats would be countered so that pilgrims could easily conduct their rituals before starting their journey to Deoghar in Jharkhand.

"The conditions of ghats are turning dangerous at a time when the mela has not started. Imagine the situation after July 27 when more than 1 lakh pilgrims visit the ghats," a shopkeeper said.

This time, the state government has upgraded the month-long Shravani Mela and has given it the status of a state fair. The PHED minister, the land and revenue minister, the tourism minister, along with the chief secretary and principal secretary of the revenue department, have conducted visits to Sultanganj to inspect mela preparations. The ministers instructed district officials to complete all mela work before July 22 but some works are yet to be completed.

Asked about the fault of his employees, who covered the 10km stretch of Kaccha Kanwariya Path (the kutcha road on which the pilgrims walk to Deoghar) with sands and stone chips making it inconvenient for pilgrims to walk bare-foot, an official said the problem was rectified with fresh sand. He added most works like sanitation and drinking water facilitates have been completed.