A QR code, nearly 1,400 ghats, and one festival that turns Delhi into a river of devotion — Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta on Sunday, 15 November 2026, announced a city-wide digital and infrastructure push for Chhath Puja, urging devotees to scan a QR code to locate their nearest designated ghat across all 13 districts of the capital.

A QR code meets an ancient ritual

The standout feature of this year's arrangements is a QR code system designed to point devotees directly to the nearest clean and equipped ghat — a modern navigation layer placed over one of Hinduism's most demanding outdoor festivals. Chhath Puja requires devotees, known as Chhath Vratis, to stand for extended periods in open water at sunrise and sunset, making ghat quality and safety a matter of real consequence, not ceremony.

Gupta framed the scale of preparation in devotional terms, posting on X: 'Yeh Chhath, Delhi ek bade parivaar ki tarah mana rahi hai' — 'This Chhath, Delhi is celebrating like one big family' — with every arrangement reflecting 'deep respect and shraddha towards Chhath Vratis.' The hashtag #दिल्ली_में_दिव्य_भव्य_छठ (Divine, Grand Chhath in Delhi) anchored the post.

1,400 ghats across 13 districts

Chhath Puja is observed primarily by communities from Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh, and Delhi's large migrant population from these states has made the festival one of the city's largest annual gatherings. Successive Delhi administrations have designated and maintained river ghats — along the Yamuna and other water bodies — ahead of the festival each year, addressing devotional need alongside urban logistics: crowd management, sanitation, and safety at the water's edge.

This year's figure of nearly 1,400 ghats spread across all 13 districts signals an intent to distribute access city-wide rather than concentrate it along the Yamuna alone — reducing pressure on a single corridor and bringing Chhath infrastructure closer to residential pockets across the capital.

Governance as gesture, gesture as governance

The digital QR layer is a small but pointed signal. Festival logistics in Indian cities have historically relied on word of mouth and community networks; a scannable locator shifts that dynamic, particularly for first-time migrants or elderly Vratis unfamiliar with new ghat sites. Whether the rollout functions smoothly at scale is the real test — post-festival assessments by municipal bodies will determine whether the system becomes a template or a footnote.

For Gupta's administration, the visible ownership of Chhath preparations carries weight beyond logistics. Chhath Puja commands deep emotional allegiance among communities that constitute a significant share of Delhi's electorate, and the government's posture — family, shraddha, collective celebration — is calibrated to meet that sentiment exactly where it lives.

Fourteen hundred ghats, one QR code, and a city invited to celebrate as one. The festival will show whether the infrastructure matches the promise.