Gujarat’s Jamnagar is all set to host over 4000 people who will be landing for the Ambani-Merchant pre-wedding festivities in the next few days. This includes guests from around the globe, artists, artist teams, staff, vendors, and suppliers among others.
All these guests will be descending for Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries scion Anant Ambani’s celebrations on 1-3 March at Reliance's Petroleum Refinery.
This will present a huge logistical challenge for the organisers to transport such a large number of people at different intervals through different modes of transport.
However, with their management expertise and experience, the Reliance team seems to be tackling the challenge without any issues.
The first challenge is to arrange flights to the Jamnagar airport.
According to sources, 30 aeroplanes have been hired from Air India to transport guests from Mumbai and Delhi airports to Jamnagar.
This is in addition to Ambani’s private jets and guest private jets shuttling between airports. Guests have to make their arrangements to reach either Mumbai or Delhi airport, after which they would be at the disposal of Ambanis.
Guests will take flights between 8 am to 1 pm on Friday, 1st March from any of these two airports. For the guest private jets reaching Jamnagar airport, several norms have to be taken care of.
One of the challenges is that since Jamnagar airport is part of the Indian Air Force, no aircraft with foreign pilots can land there.
Also, if a guest private jet originating from a foreign destination wants to land directly, there would be immigration challenges.
While most aeroplanes will go back, some of them will have to be parked here. Parking space for planes is another big challenge as Jamnagar airport has limited space available.
At least 1000 cars would be required on the 1st Morning for airport transfer. This will include super premium cars to transport VVIPs and convoy cars.
Car vendors from Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Delhi, Rajasthan, and Haryana have been roped in to send their cars and drivers to Jamnagar.
According to Mustufa Ismail, who has been a driver with the group for several years, "So many cars cannot be brought in at the last moment. Hundreds of cars have already reached Jamnagar in the last week and have been parked here.
Innovas parked in huge numbers can be seen on roads approaching the Reliance Refinery at Moti Khavdi. On the Ahmedabad-Jamnagar highway, empty premium luxury cars going in groups of 10 cars, are being spotted by people in various instances.
Drivers are also much in demand. Currently, drivers are being hired at Rs. 15,000 for a week's time commitment by the taxi vendors. In Jamnagar and the surrounding region, cars are already in shortage right now.
It is difficult to get a good car right now, even if you are ready to pay premium.
Guests will require luxury buses to move around between accommodation and event destinations within the Refinery campus. According to sources, 50 hired luxury buses are already parked and ready for the job. During the event which requires guests to travel within green areas, electric golf cars would be required. According to an estimate at least 150 cars would be required for moving around in the area under 'Vantara'.
Apart from this, there are other issues also to be handled.
There is a drive of 20 km from Jamnagar airport to Reliance Petroleum Refinery located at Moti Khavdi on Jamnagar-Dwarka highway. With so many vehicles travelling in a short time, if there is a big traffic jam, it may mess up things for the VVIP guests.
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