Who organises the Nashik–Trimbakeshwar Simhastha Kumbh Mela 2027?

Twenty-two members, every one of them by office. The Act names the offices.

• The Commissioner of Nashik Division is the chairperson.
• The Collector of Nashik District and the Special Inspector General of Police, Nashik Range, are the two vice-chairpersons.
• The Kumbh Mela Commissioner is the member-secretary. This is an officer of the Indian Administrative Service appointed by the state government to manage the Kumbh work.
• The other eighteen are ex-officio members. From the districts and the towns: the Collector of Ahilyanagar District, the Metropolitan Commissioner of the Nashik Metropolitan Region Development Authority, the Municipal Commissioner of Nashik, the Chief Executive Officer of the Zilla Parishad, and the Chief Officer of the Trimbakeshwar Municipal Council.
• From the police: the Commissioner of Police for Nashik city and the Superintendent of Police for Nashik Rural.
• From the departments: the Deputy Commissioner for planning, the Deputy Director of Health, the Superintending Engineer of the Water Resources Department in charge of the Godavari, the Chief Engineer of the Public Works Department, the Chief Engineer of the Maharashtra Jeevan Pradhikaran, the Superintending Engineer of the state electricity distribution company, the Regional Officer of the Pollution Control Board, the Joint Director of Accounts and Treasuries, and the Joint Director of Town Planning.
• From transport: the Divisional Controller of the state road transport corporation, and a representative nominated by the Railway Board.

The authority meets at least once every three months, and the chairperson presides. It publishes the minutes of its meetings on the Divisional Commissioner’s website. It sends a report of its work every month to the Committee of Ministers and to the state government.

Seven things, under the Act.

1. It prepares the Kumbh Mela Plan, in consultation with the Committee of Ministers, and sends it to the state government for approval.
2. It is the planning, coordinating and implementing authority for the Kumbh and everything connected with it.
3. It gives administrative approval to the works in the Plan.
4. It supervises the tendering done by departments, local bodies and government companies for Kumbh works.
5. It may charge fees inside the Kumbh Mela area, with the approval of the Committee of Ministers.
6. It decides what happens to the assets built or bought for the Kumbh once the Kumbh is over.
7. It does whatever else the state government gives it to do.

The chairperson has powers of the office’s own. The chairperson can direct any government department, local body, government company or public trust in Nashik Division to act, for organising the Kumbh, for traffic and crowd management, and for the use of its staff, material and money. The body directed must comply, and may not charge for it. The chairperson can requisition staff, premises and vehicles, take land on lease or requisition it, appoint experts and consultants, choose or change the agency that carries out a work, release money to it stage by stage, and have the quality of the work checked.

The authority can permit a temporary township anywhere in its area, and the usual town-planning rules do not apply to it. The structures in such a township stand for the period the authority allows, and for two years at most. Everything except the roads and the underground pipes and cables is removed after that. Sadhugram, the sadhus’ camp, is the main example.

Money passes through the Kumbh Mela Fund. Grants from the state and central governments, the fees the authority collects, and donations all go into it. Every department transfers its Kumbh money to the authority, and the authority releases it. The Kumbh Mela Commissioner operates the fund with the chairperson’s approval.

The state government, and three committees. The Act requires a Committee of Ministers for the Kumbh Mela, with one of its members named the Kumbh Mela Minister. This committee reviews the authority’s work, examines its reports, and approves the fees the authority wants to charge.

The Kumbh Mela Plan names the three committees, all set up in September 2025. The Shikhar Samiti, the apex committee, is chaired by the Chief Minister and gives the final sanction to the Plan and to major decisions. The Mantri Samiti is the committee of ministers, chaired by the Kumbh Mela Minister. The Karyakari Samiti, the executive committee, reviews and guides the work and recommends decisions to the apex committee.

The Plan was approved in that order. The authority drafted it with the Committee of Ministers. The executive committee, under the Chief Secretary, scrutinised it and recommended it. The apex committee sanctioned it at its meeting on 13 March 2026. The sanction covers works worth Rs 22,425.39 crore in two phases. The Plan says that figure is tentative and subject to revision. What is being built for the Kumbh has the works.

Its pages sit inside the website of the Divisional Commissioner, Nashik, under the heading Nashik–Trimbakeshwar Kumbh Mela 2027 Authority. They carry an About page, the list of members, and the Act with the government resolutions that go with it. The resolutions set up the apex and ministerial committees, a committee for land acquisition for the highway works, a personal ledger account for the fund, the officers who disburse it, and the authority’s new posts. The pages also carry the minutes of its meetings, its administrative approval orders with the amount of each, a page on the authority’s name and logo, and a contact page.

The largest publication is the Kumbh Mela Plan, First Edition, June 2026, 110 pages. It covers the event, the lessons of the 2015 Kumbh, sanitation, movement and parking, disaster management, health, Sadhugram and the ghats, publicity, the cultural programme, technology, and the finances. The Plan states that it is interim and subject to revision. The dates for this Kumbh, with what the authority has said about them, are on the main Kumbh page.

By phone on 0253-2461909, or by email at kumbhmela.2027@mah.gov.in. Its office is the Office of the Divisional Commissioner, Nashik Division, at Nashik Road, Nashik.