Team Herald
SANGUEM: Ever since the Selaulim Dam spillway began to overflow, there has been a mad rush of visitors to the dam and the adjoining GFDC-run botanical garden.
The rush is mostly on weekends with last Saturday and Sunday drawing a record crowd of over 8,000 visitors. It is for the first time over the years that the dam attracted such a huge crowd bringing to the fore the short comings with regards to security, parking and checks at entry point.
As a matter of security, people visiting the dam and the botanical garden in addition to the payment of entry fee charged by the GFDC are required to produce identification document at the entry gate.
However, the huge crowd forced their way to the dam site without making an entry in the record books maintained for security purpose.
The situation compounded as the security officials failed to manage the massive crowd. However, the officials were quick to requisition additional police force at the dam site fearing the situation may go out of control.
The increasing crowd at the dam also highlighted the parking woes at the site. Though there is enough space for parking at the site, the authorities have not taken the issue seriously and this led to parking woes on Sunday.
With the available parking lot which can accommodate around 30 cars, the authorities were compelled to permit the vehicles inside the main gate and park them near the temple inside the botanical garden.
The authorities have urged the visitors not to cross the barricades at the spillway in the interest of the safety as the water flow is in full swing.
Meanwhile, the visitors have urged that there should be a computerised system for people entering the dam area and have called for restricting the identity check of every visitor rather entering the personal records of a group member and record the number of people accompanying the group leader. This could help in easing the rush of people at the entry point.
