Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, October 15

In a major step towards facilitating pilgrims at Sultanpur Lodhi during the 550th Gurpurb of Guru Nanak Dev, the district administration has launched a feature-enriched ‘Parkash Utsav 550’ mobile app today. The app was also stated to work offline, as the one-time download of the data on the app would be permanent which won’t require internet connectivity, after its download.

Launching the app, MLA S Navtej Singh Cheema, Deputy Commissioner DPS Kharbanda and SSP Satinder Singh said the app had been launched with an aim to aware pilgrims from across the globe about traffic routes, railway connectivity, accommodation facilities, security, historic gurdwaras, medical facilities and places to visit in nearby areas.Cheema said android users would be able to download the app from Google Play Store and in the next three days iPhone users would also be able to download it from Apple Store.

Talking about the features of the app, he said it would provide a single-click information about historical gurudwaras, healthcare management, food and water management, toilet and waste disposal, police check- post management, IT information centres, May I help you desk, parking management, missing tracking management.The pilgrims would also be able to get information about the 37 langars at various places as GPS locations of all three tent cities and nine parking areas were provided on the app so that people coming from various roads would be able to choose their parking lot and allotted tent city.

Besides, panic alert management (in case of any emergency) and all kind of helplines and ATM points are also mentioned in the app.

Kharbanda said to tackle any critical situation, locations of all 44 hospitals at Sultanpur, Lohian, Kapurthala and Jalandhar were also given in the app. Deputy Commissioner (DC) also made it clear that besides facilitating devotees, the app would also be helpful in management of human resources and deployment of officials in all 15 sectors.

“Auto generation of I cards for officials will also be done by the app, having QR code, photo and registered mobile number. Hence, it will save energy and money of the district administration by performing the huge task, as over 9,000 employees will be deployed here from November 1 to 12. Employees on duty would be able to check his or her duty point, shift and nature of job on it also,” the DC said.

Besides, ADC Rahul Chabha said communication companies would install over 20 high-frequency towers to provide mobile signal and Internet data to cater lakhs of pilgrims against the already existing mobile signal and data for only 16,000 residents of the city.