Police Commissioner Mohit Agarwal spent Thursday walking Namo Ghat, Raj Ghat and Bhaisasur Ghat with a crowd-management brief for the proposed Varanasi air show on 22, 23 and 25 October, and the numbers he put to officers leave little room for casual planning.
About three million people are expected across the show window, according to the commissioner’s review. Agarwal directed a full action plan covering public movement routes, entry and exit points, pressure pockets, parking and traffic diversions. Barricading and holding areas are to be marked wherever the riverfront geometry concentrates footfall. Alternative routes are to be fixed in advance so a jam at one ghat mouth does not lock the entire corridor.
Parking around Namo Ghat drew special attention. Officers were told to keep designated lots in use and stop haphazard roadside parking from choking both vehicles and pedestrians. Continuous CCTV coverage, drone support and other technical surveillance are to back extra deployment at sensitive stretches. Emergency routes, rapid-response teams, queue management and emergency exits sit in the same checklist, along with an evacuation plan if a sudden surge or weather break forces a fast empty-out of the viewing belts.
Agarwal also ordered a fresh end-to-end review and mock drills before the show dates so gaps show up in rehearsal rather than on the day. Coordination with other departments was flagged as mandatory for a riverfront event of this scale.
Officers present during the Thursday inspection included Deputy Commissioner of Police (Kashi Zone) Gaurav Bansal, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (Kashi Zone) Vaibhav Bangar, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Anshuman Mishra, the concerned Assistant Commissioner of Police and other field officers. Their zones cover the ghat belt and the traffic mesh that will carry spectators in and out of the riverfront.
Thursday’s walk was a police crowd-and-traffic review: named ghats, named dates, a three-million planning figure, and a surveillance-plus-drill checklist.
For residents along the Assi–Rajghat stretch, the practical near-term signal is that October’s three show days will reshape parking, boat movement and bridge-side traffic well before the first jet passes overhead. Mock drills usually mean temporary lane closures and loudspeaker tests in the weeks ahead; those are easier to absorb when announced early.
Crowd estimates of this size are planning assumptions, not ticket sales. If the commissionerate issues a later detailed diversion map, that document will supersede today’s high-level directions. Until then, the confirmed facts are the three ghat names, the 22–23–25 October window, the ~3 million planning figure, and the officer list that walked the ground with the commissioner.
