Trimbakeshwar municipal council president Triveni Tungar has urged Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis to protect the town’s historic wadas, traditional buildings and old homes from unnecessary demolition for road-widening projects planned ahead of the Simhastha Kumbh Mela.
Tungar submitted a memorandum to the chief minister on Sunday after a joint consultation involving sadhus and mahants from all akhadas, senior citizens, former and serving councillors, public representatives and administrative officials. The consultation reached a consensus that heritage structures in the holy town should be preserved while carrying out only essential infrastructure work.
“The historic structures add to the holy town’s beauty and should not be demolished or displaced in the name of development,” Tungar said, according to the memorandum cited in the report.
The council president also argued that the planned crowd-management arrangements reduce the need for extensive road expansion through Trimbakeshwar’s traditional neighbourhoods. New bathing ghats measuring 2.5 km are being constructed on the Godavari river outside the main town area for the holy dip during the Kumbh Mela.
Tungar said the alternate bathing arrangements would help regulate and decentralise the movement of pilgrims. Since large crowds would not need to enter the narrow inner core for the main bathing activity, she argued that aggressive road widening through old residential areas would not be necessary.
The municipal council has adopted a resolution seeking protection for about 40 land parcels from acquisition. The demand applies to properties where owners have already developed the land with permission, begun the development process or made payments to the civic body, council chief officer Ganesh Jadhav said.
“All such land parcels, that are about 40 in number in the open, should be spared from acquisition and a resolution to the issue has been adopted,” Jadhav said. He added that the government was considering the council’s demand positively.
The dispute places Trimbakeshwar’s traditional urban fabric alongside preparations for a major religious gathering. The town’s narrow inner areas contain wadas and old homes that the council says contribute to its character and visual identity. The proposed road work has therefore raised questions about whether mobility improvements can be carried out without removing established buildings and displacing property owners.
The council has asked the state government to take it into confidence before approving or implementing infrastructure work affecting the town. Its position is that road expansion should be limited to what is necessary after accounting for the new bathing facilities and the expected distribution of pilgrim movement.
The immediate next step is the state government’s consideration of the memorandum and the council resolution concerning the 40 land parcels. No final decision on the requested exemptions or on the scope of road widening was reported.
