October 6, 2024 was a memorable day but not in the way the Tamil Nadu government and the Indian Air Force may have intended it to be. The day the IAF showed off its prowess with a magnificent airshow, the first in Chennai in 21 years, might now go down in the books as a tragic day on which five people died as a result of gross mismanagement by the authorities. Having called for 15 lakh people to gather on the Marina beach in a bid to break records, the authorities could not manage the crowds and ensure their safety on multiple levels.
The state failed to execute a plan for the gathered masses to safely exit the venue, to organise sufficient water at the venue, and ensure public transport services were increased to meet the expected demand. Instead, people who had gathered to watch the airshow from 11am to 1pm on a sultry Sunday marked by high humidity were left to find their way to bus stops and metro and suburban rail stations without any guidance in the form of signage or over a public address system about which exit routes to take.
Lakhs of people tried to move towards the nearest stations en masse resulting in massive bottlenecks and a stampede-like situation. Metro and suburban stations were overrun as services were run on a Sunday pattern rather than to meet the high expected demand. The frequency of Metro services on one line was only increased an hour after the event had ended. In the chaos, five people lost their lives and many others were hospitalised after fainting. Worse, ambulance services were unable to rush the affected to the three major hospitals just a few kilometres away as they became marooned in the crowd.
The Tamil Nadu government announced a solatium for the kin of the deceased and said it would ensure better arrangements were made in the future. This is a promise it can keep only if the lapses on the part of several key departments are analysed and meaningful action is taken against those responsible in a transparent manner as the trust of the public is easily lost, yet hard to regain.