Rajamahendravaram is all geared up to ensure the smooth conduct of the ‘Godavari antya pushkaralu’, a 12-day festival commencing on Sunday. Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu will be participating in the event on the concluding day on August 11. The Godavari is the only river to host ‘adi’ and ‘antya’ pushkarams. People from Odisha and West Bengal too are expected to participate in the event here.

The Municipal Corporation made arrangements for six lakh people per day under the guidance of Sri Vijay Rama Raju, Municipal Commissioner and coordinator of the event. Though there are 13 ghats from Kotilingala to Vijjeswram, the focus would be on the Kotilingala, Pushkara, TTD, Shraddananda, Umamaheswara, Saraswati, and Gowthami ghats, where crowd presence is expected to be more going by the track record. 

The police have deployed 3,500 personnel to man all the ghats up to Kovvuru. In coordination with the MCR, the police have also put up 27 CC cameras exclusively to monitor crowd movement and sanitation. There will be strict vigil on the movement of anti-social elements too. Urban SP B. Rajakumari has said that one DSP, two inspectors, four sub-inspectors, five head constables, and 10 constables have been deployed at four ‘A’ grade ghats.

The Municipal Corporation has arranged 152 boats, an equal number of swimmers, and a medical team each at seven important ghats.

Cultural shows are being planned in Anam Kala Kendram during evenings. This apart, old Telugu movies will be screened at the Kotilingala ghat. The historic rail-cum-road bridge will be tastefully illuminated during the festival period.

Rajamahendravaram Municipal Corporation conducted 3K Run in collobaration with Swiggy to promote "Swachh Deepawali - Swachh Rajamahendravaram" capaign in Rajamahendravaram. This is a week long capaign to promote Plastic free, Smoke free, Sound free, Waste free and Safe Deepawali to the citizens of Rajamahendravaram. Capaign starting with 3K Run and closing with disposing of plastic and releasing of sky lanterns from kambalacheruvu park. This week long campaign scheduled from 20-10-2019 to 26-10-2019.