What is being built for the Nashik–Trimbakeshwar Simhastha Kumbh Mela 2027?

In four steps. The department that will build a work prepares its estimate and its detailed project report. The authority then gives the work administrative approval at one of its meetings. The Kumbh Mela Commissioner issues the administrative approval order to the department. The department then tenders the work and issues a work order to the contractor.

As at the Plan’s date, works worth Rs 15,040.77 crore had administrative approval. Each order is published on the authority’s website with the name of the work, the department, the number of works in it, and the approved amount. An approved amount is an estimate the work is not to exceed. It is not a spend.

Money is released against progress and against quality. An independent quality-checking agency inspects every work, and the department is paid only on its satisfactory report. If a work fails to meet its specification, payment for that part stops until it is put right. The authority tracks the works on a project-monitoring portal and the money on a fund-management portal. In the financial year 2025–26 it received and disbursed Rs 1,500 crore from its own fund and Rs 360.56 crore from a central government scheme.

A ring road, widened highways, and new roads and bridges inside both towns. The largest single orders are for the Nashik Ring Road through the Maharashtra State Infrastructure Development Corporation: Rs 3,954 crore for its construction and Rs 3,659.47 crore for the land.

Inside Nashik city, the Nashik Municipal Corporation holds orders for roads and ancillary works of Rs 930.23 crore for twenty-one works, Rs 298.55 crore for nine works and Rs 47 crore for one. It holds an order for four bridges at Rs 62.80 crore, and a revised order replacing the old narrow bridge on Trimbak Road over the Nandini at Pimpalgaon Bahula with a new one. A road from Karma Heights past the Tapovan sewage works to Nandur village is approved at Rs 20.22 crore. A road from the Janardan Swami Math to Dream City Chowk is under a revised order. The order calls it the road to the ghat and to Sadhugram. The Public Works Department holds orders for fourteen roads at Rs 574 crore, two roads at Rs 87 crore, and the Sangamner–Wadgaon–Nilwande–Kauthe Kamleshwar road at Rs 97.25 crore. Trimbakeshwar town has five small orders for internal roads, gutters and ducts.

Beyond the two towns, orders cover internal roads and parking at Shirdi for eighteen works at Rs 24.51 crore, a new bus stand at Saptashrungi Gad at Rs 15 crore, bus stands, parking and workshops for the state transport corporation at Rs 29.65 crore, and a new terminal at Ojhar airport at Rs 572.51 crore. The centrally funded works are the national highways into Nashik and Trimbakeshwar, nine works over 625.74 km at Rs 2,763.24 crore by the National Highways Authority of India and seven works over 294.66 km at Rs 4,355.92 crore by the Public Works Department, and eighty-five works at seven railway stations at Rs 1,329.24 crore.

The Plan’s movement strategy rests on the 30 km corridor between Nashik and Trimbakeshwar. Vehicles stop at parking in three tiers, outer, buffer and inner. Shuttle buses carry pilgrims from the outer parking inward. Beyond the inner parking, everyone walks to the ghats, the camps and the temples. The authority has approved Rs 12.09 crore for the Indian Institute of Management, Nagpur, to prepare the mobility plan.

New ghats on both banks at both towns, repairs to the old ghats, and a flagpole at each of the two kunds. A घाट ghat is the flight of stone steps leading down into a river, and the bank they stand on. A कुण्ड kund is a tank or pool with stone sides and steps, fed by the river or a spring.

At Trimbakeshwar, an order of Rs 177.86 crore covers new ghats and ancillary works on the right and left banks of the Godavari, with a separate order for the land between Chandra Ghat and Prayagtirth. At Nashik the new ghats run downstream of the town. Two works at Nandur and Dasak above the Dasak bridge are approved at Rs 111.90 crore. A ghat on the right bank above the place where the Nandini joins the Godavari is approved at Rs 77.66 crore, one on the left bank at Takli below that junction at Rs 39.47 crore, and one on the right bank at Takli above it at Rs 44.53 crore. A ghat at Odha is approved at Rs 27.43 crore. A new ghat at Anandavalli, moved there from Navshya Ganpati under a revised order, is approved at Rs 48.42 crore. A rubber dam is approved below the Godavari–Nandini junction. Repairs to the old ghats at Nashik are approved at Rs 44.04 crore.

Temple and tank restoration through the state Archaeological Department is approved at Rs 48.78 crore for thirteen works, five in Nashik city and eight at Trimbakeshwar, with three more works at Rs 6.81 crore. The Naroshankar temple premises are approved at Rs 3.91 crore. One order of Rs 7.09 crore covers a permanent flagpole at Ramkund, one at Kushavarta and one at the new ghat at Trimbakeshwar. The Kumbh period opens with the flag hoisting at Ramkund and at Kushavarta, and the flag hoisting has what the poles are for.

For the river itself the Plan adopts a zero-discharge approach: the sewage treatment plants at Nashik enlarged, the drains that run into the Godavari intercepted, temporary toilets and changing rooms at every bathing place, and skimmers and floating barriers on the water.

Water supply for both towns and for the camp, four new substations, and sewerage at Trimbakeshwar. Water supply works in Nashik city are approved at Rs 403.82 crore for two works, and a scheme to lift water to reservoirs across the Trimbakeshwar area at about Rs 328.81 crore. Pumping machinery at the Gangapur dam and the water treatment plants, for the water supply to Sadhugram, is approved at Rs 28.69 crore. Solid waste and water supply works at Trimbakeshwar are approved at about Rs 76.06 crore, and water supply at the railway stations at Rs 7.40 crore.

Four 33/11 kV substations are approved at about Rs 73.51 crore. Strengthening of the electricity distribution system is approved at Rs 114.87 crore for ten works in Nashik city and Rs 60.57 crore for nine works at Trimbakeshwar. An underground sewerage system for Trimbakeshwar is approved at Rs 26.64 crore, and sewage works from Chandshi to Jalalpur at Rs 5.01 crore.

Cameras, a command centre, police equipment and buildings, fire vehicles, and two hospitals renovated. A CCTV surveillance system for Nashik city is approved at Rs 371.70 crore, and an integrated command and control centre for Nashik Rural police at Rs 32.75 crore. Crowd-control material and infrastructure are approved at Rs 255.71 crore for twenty-six works under the rural police and Rs 183.80 crore for sixteen works under the city police. Training for the city police is approved at Rs 33.46 crore, and three hundred traffic wardens for three months at Rs 2.23 crore. A multipurpose police building at Trimbakeshwar is approved at Rs 54.17 crore. Advance water tenders and quick-response vehicles for the Nashik fire brigade are approved at about Rs 18.31 crore, and a disaster-management consultant at Rs 7.90 crore.

The Plan proposes temporary hospitals and first-aid posts, ambulances, disease surveillance, and rescue teams on the water with boats and divers. Renovation of the Tapovan hospital and the Indira Gandhi hospital in the Panchavati division is approved at Rs 13.37 crore. The Trimbakeshwar sub-district hospital is taken on a three-year lease, with improvements, at Rs 1.72 crore.

Sadhugram, and works at the akhadas’ own places in both towns. An अखाड़ा akhada is an order of sadhus with its own head, its own rule, its own property and its own place in the bathing order at a Kumbh. The word originally meant a wrestling ground. At Nashik the camp is at Tapovan, the forest on the river a little below Panchavati, and Sadhugram has both camps in full. Works at the places of the three akhadas at Nashik are approved at Rs 2.99 crore, and works at the sites of the ten akhadas at Trimbakeshwar at Rs 9.03 crore. Works to be undertaken by the akhadas themselves are approved at Rs 36.08 crore.

Technology, publicity, the authority’s own offices, and works at the pilgrim places around the two towns. A web portal and a mobile application for the Kumbh are approved at Rs 5 crore, and strengthening of the telecom network in Nashik city and Trimbakeshwar at about Rs 129 crore. A creative media agency for branding and publicity is approved at Rs 27 crore, and publicity works at Rs 3.88 crore.

The authority’s office is the old Zilla Parishad building near Trimbak Naka, taken on rent at Rs 18 lakh a month. Its renovation is approved at Rs 3.50 crore and its electrification at Rs 3.49 crore. A new administrative building at Trimbakeshwar is approved at Rs 46.57 crore. Around the towns, works at Kapildhara at Kavanai, Chakratirth at Beje and Taked are approved at about Rs 81.24 crore, the pilgrim paths on Brahmagiri and at Anjaneri under the Forest Department at Rs 23.12 crore, and the second phase of the Darshan Path at Trimbakeshwar, with a ghat, a procession road and a rites building, at Rs 390 crore.