Dera Baba Nanak Utsav from November 8 to 11, 2019
KI Singh/ royalpatiala.in/ Dera Baba Nanak
Come November 8, 2019, and the historic Dera Baba Nanak will witness an exciting convergence of a whopping 30,000 pilgrims a day for four days. To accommodate the pilgrims, many of whom will be coming from distant lands, a sprawling 30 acres of land has been transformed into a well-equipped Tented City, with capacity to put up around 3,500 people a day.
This city within the city is all set to welcome its pilgrim guests, in a manner befitting the historic 550th Prakash Purb celebration of Sri Guru Nanak Dev ji, with its 544 European style tents, 100 Swiss cottages and 20 Darbar style accommodations.
Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh, who inspected the Tented City as well as the Main Pandal for the main event, expressed satisfaction at the arrangements. The main pandal has a capacity for 30,000 pilgrims, expected to converge here on each day of the Dera Baba Nanak Utsav, from November 8 to 11, 2019.
The Chief Minister also reviewed the public utility arrangements, including drinking water and Langar facilities. The Langar Hall is designed to serve 1500 persons at a time, with a kitchen equipped with modern facilities.
The Tented City project, developed at Rs 4.2 crores, has a mix of European Type (EP) accommodation, which can take in six persons (with 140 separate bathrooms and 140 washrooms constructed to meet their basic needs), Swiss Cottage (SC) for two persons each, with attached bathroom, and Darbar Tent (DT), also having attached bathroom, for accommodating four persons each.
The total accommodation works out to 3544 persons, of which 26 EP, 10 SC and 2 DT are for Civil officers/ officials, with 8 western Latrines/washrooms each for EP tents. Another 56 EP, 8 SC and 2 DT are designated for police officers/ officials with 17 Latrines/ washrooms each for EP tents.
One RO, with 1000 litre per hour capacity and 18 pagodas for water distribution, will ensure safe drinking water for all, while four 125 Kv DG sets will provide uninterrupted power supply to the pilgrims, according to an official spokesperson.
Other features of the Tent City include a registration room, a Joda Ghar, a cloak room, a VIP Lounge and a fire station. Booking/registration is free and can be done both online and offline. Online booking will start on November 2.
Cooperation and Jail Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, Technical Education Minister Charanjit Singh Channi, PWD & Education Minister Vijay Inder Singla, MLA Fatehjang Singh Bajwa, Media Advisor to CM Raveen Thukral, Principal Secretary to CM Tejveer Singh, DGP Dinkar Gupta, Political Secretary to CM Capt Sandeep Singh Sandhu, Additional Chief Secretary Cooperation Kalpna Mittal Baruah, MD Markfed Varun Roozam, MD Milkfed Kamaldeep Singh Sangha, MD Sugarfed Puneet Goel, Deputy Commissioner Gurdaspur Vipul Ujwal, IG Border Range SPS Parmar and SSP Batala Opinder Singh Ghumman accompanied the Chief Minister during the inspection.
