Measuring accessibility of various facilities by walking in world's largest mass religious gathering - Kumbh Mela

Accessibility, the ease of accessing a facility, is one of the key measures for urban transportation planning. There have beenvarious studies conducted for calculation of accessibility using motorised modes in urban areas. This paper computes the accessibility to various facilities by walking in world's largest mass religious gathering, Kumbh Mela(2). In doing so, it serves as one of the missing links in the contextual studies for accessibility. The gravity type exponential method is used in this study for calculation of accessibility. Accessibility to various facilities was computed and the sectors in study area were classified into high and low accessible sectors. The impedance parameter beta of time and distance came out to be lowest for visiting the temple, which shows the willingness and motivation of the users to walk longer distances for this particular activity type. Consequently, heat maps of accessibility index were developed as a sample case for drinking water stalls with walking as a mode and time and distance being the impedance variables. Further, sectors with redundant facilities were also identified. This work, with its findings aims to equip the organizing agencies and decision-making authorities with tool/methodology to better plan and organize such mass religious gatherings and also use it to identify service gaps in planning of facilities during such events by using the knowledge and understanding of accessibility measures in similar contexts.