ALLAHABAD

Yamuna bridge

Allahabad or City of God in Persian, also known as Prayag is a city in the North Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and administrative headquarters of Allahabad District. The ancient name of the city is Prayag (Sanskrit for "place of sacrifice") and is believed to be the spot where Brahma offered his first sacrifice after creating the world. It is one of four sites of the mass Hindu pilgrimage Kumbh Mela, the others being Haridwar, Ujjain and Nashik. It has a position of importance in Hindu scriptures for it is situated at the confluence, known as Triveni Sangam, of the holy rivers Ganges and Yamuna, and Hindu belief says that the ancient Sarasvati River also joins here.

Many government offices are present in the city such as the Allahabad High Court, the Principal Accountant General Office (AG office), the Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission Office, Uttar Pradesh Police Head Quarters (PHQ), headquarters of the North Central Railway, the Regional Office of the Central Board of Secondary Education and the Uttar Pradesh Board of High School and Intermediate Education.Allahabad also houses the headquarter of famous wheeler book shop.Allahabad ranks 8th in terms of purchasing power capacity in northern India.

Allahabad is associated with 7 out of 14 Prime Ministers of India. Jawaharlal Nehru, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, Gulzarilal Nanda, Vishwanath Pratap Singh and Chandra Shekhar were all either born in Allahabad, were alumni of Allahabad University or got elected from a constituency in Allahabad.

The Government of India has selected Allahabad as one of the mission cities for the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission(JNNURM), with the goals of improving urban infrastructure, efficient governance and basic services to urban citizens

SANGAM

Sangama is the Sanskrit word for confluence. The Triveni Sangam in Allahabad is a confluence of 3 rivers, the Ganga, Yamuna, and Saraswati. Of these three, the river Saraswati is invisible and is said to flow underground and join the other two rivers from below. The point of confluence is a sacred place for Hindus. A bath here is said to wash away all of one's sins and free one from the cycle of rebirth. Here the muddy and pale-yellow waters of Ganga merge with the blue waters of Yamuna. While the Ganga is only 4 feet deep, the Yamuna is 40 feet deep near the point of their nexus. The river Yamuna merges into the Ganges at this point and the Ganges continues on until it meets the sea at the Bay of Bengal. At the confluence of these two great Indian rivers, where the invisible Saraswati conjoins them, many tirtha yatris take boats to bathe from platforms erected in the Sangam. This, together with the migratory birds give a picturesque look to the river during the Kumbha Mela, in the month of January. It is believed that all the gods come in human form to take a dip at the sangam and expiate their sins.

CONNECTIVITY FROM OTHER PART OF INDIA

Air

Allahabad is served by the Allahabad Airport (Bamrauli Air Force Base) (IXD) and is linked to Delhi and Kolkata (Calcutta) by JetLite and Air India Regional. Other larger airports in the vicinity are at Varanasi (Varanasi Airport 142 km (88 mi)) and Lucknow (Amausi International Airport 210 km (130 mi)).

Road

National Highway 2 runs through the middle of the city. National Highway 2 is also proposed as one of the routes of Golden Quadrilateral Highway, Delhi-Kolkata section, but it runs out of the city through newly constructed bypass. National Highway 96 connects to NH 28 at Faizabad. Another is National Highway 27 which is 93 km (58 mi) long and starts from Allahabad and ends at Mangawan in Madhya Pradesh connecting to National Highway 7. A four lane access controlled bypass road of 84.7 km aided by World Bank is completed. This will not only reduce transport constraints but will also de-congest heavy transport traffic passing through middle of city. There are other state highways that link Allahabad to all other parts of the country. Allahabad has two bus stations catering to different routes - at Leader Road and Civil Lines. A number of road bridges on rivers Ganges and Yamuna have been built to connect Allahabad with its suburb towns like Naini, Jhusi etc. A new eight lane access controlled expressway - Ganga Expressway is also proposed to pass through Allahabad. A 8 laned outer ring road is proposed in the allahabad district. City buses, Tourist taxis, auto rickshaws (or tempos) are available for local transport. There is also a local bus service that connects various parts of the city. But the most convenient method of local transport is the cycle rickshaw.National Highway 76, 76 Extn. and 24B connects to Rajasthan state, Mirzapur and Lucknow respectively.

Train

Served by Indian Railways, Allahabad is the headquarters of the North Central Railway Zone, and is well connected by trains with all major cities, namely, Kolkata, Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Indore, Lucknow, Bhopal, Gwalior, Jabalpur, Bhubaneswar, Cuttack Bangalore and Jaipur. Allahabad has eight railway stations with in its city limits namely Prayag , Allahabad City (Rambagh), Daraganj, Allahabad Junction, Naini Jn, Prayag Ghat, Subedar Ganj & Bamrauli.