Seven Bihar Youths Travel 550 Km To Prayagraj Maha Kumbh Mela Via Motorboat To Avoid Traffic Jam

Prayagraj: Seven youths from Kamhariya village in Bihar's Buxar district, travelled 550 km to Prayagraj via a motor-propelled boat to avoid a massive traffic jam on the highways. The group, consisting of professional boatmen, started their journey on February 11 and arrived at Prayagraj on February 13 to take the holy dip at Sangam in Maha Kumbh Mela.

According to reports, the group, including Manu Chaudhary, Sumant, Sandeep, Sukhdev, Aadu, Ravindra, and Ramesh, used a motorboat to navigate the Ganga River. While Munnu is a resident of Ballia, the remaining six were from Buxar, Bihar. All of them are professional boatmen and support their families by running boats in their respective districts. Notably, they used Google Maps to navigate the river, even in pitch darkness. The boat was equipped with a gas cylinder, stove, and food, and the group took turns steering the boat and resting.

In a video post on social media, Manu Chaudhary said, "Seven of us reached Maha Kumbh by travelling 275 kilometres on the Ganga in the boat which I use to help people cross the Ganga at Ballia's Kotwa Narayanpur. I was at my maternal uncle's house in Kamhariya when we mulled over taking the holy dip in Sangam. Since there was so much traffic and the vehicles were being stopped well before Sangam, we decided that we would use the ‘vehicle’ which we have been using to earn our bread and butter." 

The youths shared their experience saying that there were complete arrangements for a gas cylinder, stove, and food on the motorboat. They stated that rotation-wise, two people would steer the boat while the other five would rest. The 84-hour journey of about 550 km from Buxar to Prayagraj was absolutely unique and thrilling. 

"We also kept an additional engine in the boat, so that if one engine malfunctions, the boat can run with the other engine. We kept a 5 kg gas cylinder, stove, 20 litres of petrol, vegetables, rice, flour, and quilts and mattresses on the boat itself," Manu said. The only thing we missed was a power bank for our mobiles, but since we are not professional bloggers, we never thought of it, said the ace boatman, who had around 140 subscribers on his Insta account, and in the last 24 hours, it has doubled.

"Our boat was stopped before pontoon bridge number 30 (downstream after Sangam), so we anchored our boat and came walking to the mela, had a blissful ‘Snan’, and commenced our return voyage on February 13," he said. In this journey of about 275 kilometres, a one-way journey, they found only one pontoon bridge near Gahmar village in Ghazipur district of UP.

After reaching Prayagraj, the group anchored their boat before pontoon bridge number 30 and walked to the mela to take a holy dip. They commenced their return voyage on February 13 and spent around Rs 20,000 on the entire journey, including petrol for the motorboat.

Chaudhary described the journey as “absolutely unique and thrilling”. The group's Instagram following also increased after they posted about their journey, with Chaudhary's followers doubling in the last 24 hours.