Mahakumbh-2025: Moves afoot to smarten Sangam city street vendors

After tourist guides and boatmen, the Yogi government has begun an exercise to make street vendors of Sangam city smart too ahead of Mahakumbh-2025.

The state tourism department and experts of Manyavar Kanshiram Institute of Tourism Management, Lucknow, have begun training street vendors in small groups, officials of the state tourism department said.

The aim of the move is to help street vendors improve communication skills, make them understand the importance of hygiene, explain to them the benefits of digital payment and polish their soft skills and hospitality skills to help them better serve guests, said regional tourism officer, Prayagraj, Aparajita Singh, while confirming the move.

The training of the first group of 60 street vendors has been completed recently. In all, 600 street vendors of the city will be given training as part of the initiative, she added.

Officials said that street vendors are an important component of the urban economy, as on one hand they provide daily essential items to local people while on the other hand, they also increasingly come in contact with tourists and other visitors from outside. Their training is necessary to make them sensitive towards their own behavior with tourists and to sensitise them about the importance of hygiene and cleanliness.

Assistant professor Prakhar Tiwari of Manyavar Kanshiram Tourism Management Institute, Lucknow, is leading these training sessions for street vendors in Prayagraj.

Tiwari said that these street vendors are being trained in communication skills, ways of conversation and mutual behaviour, basic information about the tourist places of the district, cleanliness and digital cash transfer. Their first batch of 60 street vendors has received training and now training is set to start for the second batch, he added.

Apart from street vendors, training of tour guides and boatmen is also going on in the district.

Tiwari said that four batches comprising 240 tour guides have been trained so far. In all, 1,000 tour guides are to be trained in the district. Similarly, the training of two batches of boatmen comprising 170 individuals have been completed so far. In all, 600 boatmen are to be trained before the Mahakumbh-2025, he added.