Over 300 lifeguards to patrol Puri beach during Rath Yatra

Bhubaneswar: The Puri district administration has hired 300 trained lifeguards for deployment on the beach to prevent incidents of drowning during the Rath Yatra. Unofficial sources said about 12-15 people drown in the Puri sea every year during the festival.
Though at least 80 lifeguards guard the beach at any given time, the administration has roped in 300 more to ensure the safety of tourists, who would throng the seashore after taking part in the Rath Yatra. The state tourism department will bear the expense of their deployment. Puri district collector Samarth Verma, SP Kanwar Vishal Singh and tourist officer Saroj Pradhan recently spoke to the lifeguards about their responsibilities.
“We made the lifeguards undergo a tourism orientation training programme at the Indian Institute of Tourism and Travel Management (IITTM) here. They have been taught the basic etiquettes of dealing with tourists and response during crisis,” Pradhan said.
A special yellow-colour uniform has been designed for the lifeguards so that the tourists can easily identify them. They will be deployed along the 5km beach from Chakratirtha Road up to Baliapanda. Tourist assistance centres with first-aid facility and ambulances would be positioned at different places along the beach.
While tourists were banned from attending the Rath owing to the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, three tourists had died by drowning in 2019. The Puri police have advised hoteliers to sensitise their guests to seek the assistance of lifeguards while bathing in the sea.
In a related development, the Puri police have roped in hundreds of local men to assist the cops in regulating traffic and movement of devotees. “We call them Sahi (street) volunteers, who would be positioned at different places to help our personnel manage the crowd and streamline traffic. We have already held a meeting with them,” the Puri SP said. Singh said community participation and cooperation of locals are key to the smooth conduct of the festival.