Preparing for Maha Kumbh: 15 departments, IITs race have 3 months to finish 500 projects worth Rs 6,000 crore

The Maha Kumbh and the shahi snan (royal bathing), being held aft a spread of 12 years, volition beryllium dispersed implicit 4,000 hectares on the banks of the Ganga, with an expected footfall of astatine slightest 40 crore people. The 2012 Maha Kumbh, conducted connected a fund of Rs 1,152, saw astir 12 crore visitors, portion the 2019 Ardh Kumbh (Half Kumbh), dispersed implicit astir 2,500 hectares and with a fund of astir Rs 2,400 crore, saw a footfall of astir 25 crore visitors.

The occurrence and standard of the 2025 lawsuit presume value successful airy of the information that the 2012 Maha Kumbh was organised by the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party authorities successful the state.

Over the adjacent 3 months, the authorities departments acrophobic volition enactment with IIT Kanpur to finalise plans for monolithic assemblage absorption and security; with IIT Guwahati to channelise and power the stream flow; and decorativeness some imperishable and impermanent projects, including the Ganga Expressway, 1 of Uttar Pradesh’s longest expressways that connects Meerut to Prayagraj. The authorities are aiming to container astatine slightest 4 Guinness World Records done this event.

Officials said their biggest challenges see assemblage management, h2o channelisation owed to the delayed rainfall this twelvemonth and the higher-than-normal levels of the Ganga astatine present.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Vijay Kiran Anand, Mela Adhikari and elder IAS officer, said, “The h2o usually starts receding astir September 15. However, this year, it has been delayed by astir a month. We are besides deploying manpower of astir 20,000 workers, including 10,000 sanitation workers and others to mange duties related to electricity, roads, etc. We volition besides guarantee that each projects are completed connected time.”
Officials liable for the lawsuit told The Indian Express, “With astir 40 crore radical expected to sojourn the Maha Kumbh, the 4,000-hectare country has been divided into 25 administrative sectors to marque assemblage absorption easier.”

To augment assemblage monitoring, assemblage density analysis, incidental reporting and monitoring of cleanliness done power rooms, 2,300 CCTV cameras volition beryllium installed crossed some the Maha Kumbh venue and parts of Prayagraj. The authorities besides program to acceptable up 99 impermanent parking areas, dispersed implicit 1,850 hectares, and implicit 1.45 lakh toilets successful the mela area.

For easiness of question crossed the mela venue, the Public Works Department (PWD) volition conception 400 km of impermanent roads and 30 pontoon bridges implicit the Ganga. The authorities powerfulness section volition instal 67,000 LED lights and 2,000 star hybrid lights, too 2 caller powerfulness substations and 66 caller transformers to guarantee uninterrupted powerfulness proviso during the 45-day event.

The Uttar Pradesh Jal Nigam volition laic a 1,249-km enactment to proviso potable h2o crossed the mela sectors, too the installation of 200 h2o ATMs and 85 h2o pumps.

The authorities roadways section volition ply 7,000 buses connected antithetic highways that link to Prayagraj. It volition besides tally astir 550 shuttle buses from Prayagraj to the mela venue. The Prayagraj Mela Authority has authorised 8 antithetic agencies to overgarment murals connected nationalist walls and buildings, dispersed implicit 15 lakh quadrate feet.

Projects with a November-end deadline see the installation of astir 1,500 caller signage crossed Prayagraj and the mela area; and planting of astir 2.71 lakh saplings nether the ‘Green Maha Kumbh’ task by the wood and different departments.

Among projects with a December-end deadline are the Rs 7,742-crore Ganga Expressway and the Rs 274-crore upgrade of the Prayagraj Airport.

A 594-km controlled-access, six-lane greenfield expressway, the Ganga Expressway, the 2nd largest successful the country, volition link Meerut to Prayagraj, too providing connectivity to the metropolis from the National Capital Region. Being developed nether the Public-Private-Partnership mode, it is being made successful 4 simultaneous parts — 3 by Adani Enterprises and 1 by IRB Infrastructure Developers Limited. Sources said that astir 60% of the wide enactment is already completed.

The authorization acrophobic is besides moving connected upgradation and beautification of the Prayagraj Airport, which includes constructing a caller terminal building, expanding the apron country (where planes are parked), etc. Though the deadline is December 25, officials said the people is to implicit each carnal enactment by the 3rd week of November. Sources added that astir 50% of each caller operation enactment is already finished.

The authorities has besides requested the railway ministry to treble the fig of trains to Prayagraj, particularly astir the clip of the Mauni Amavasya snan, “since astir visitors are expected to sojourn the mela then”. A root said, “Around 500 peculiar trains were operational successful 2019 (for the Ardh Kumbh). The fig is apt to beryllium accrued to astir 1,000. Nearly 300 trains are expected to beryllium pressed into work astir the clip of the Mauni Amavasya snan.”