Ujjain 2028 Simhastha: Two month long fair for devotees, many special bathing festivals to be held

Ujjain Simhasth Mahakumbh 2028: The government has officially announced the dates for the upcoming Simhasth Mahakumbh, which will be held in the holy city of Ujjain along the banks of the Shipra river in 2028. Mela Officer Ashish Singh shared that this time, the Simhasth will last for two full months — from March 27 to May 27. Between April 9 and May 8, there will be three main ‘Amrit Snan’ bathing days and seven special bathing festivals. The last Simhasth was held for just one month. The Mahakumbh Simhasth takes place in Ujjain every 12 years and brings together saints, monks, and devotees from across the world to take a holy dip in the Shipra and spread the message of spirituality and culture. This time, the government expects around 140 million people to attend. With only 35 months left for the grand event, the worrying part is that most projects — roads, bridges, electricity — are still only on paper. Delays now could become a serious problem later So far, only two projects funded under the Simhasth scheme have actually started on the ground in the last year. Most other departmental works are still stuck in the approval process or waiting for contractors to be assigned. This clearly points to carelessness and a lack of urgency from officials. If the actual work doesn’t begin soon, it might lead to serious troubles closer to the event.

Plans to welcome crores of devotees
A report mentions that keeping in mind the scale and spiritual importance of Simhasth, 11 departments have put forward proposals for 102 projects worth ₹15,751 crore to improve facilities for devotees. Out of these, 75 projects worth ₹5,133 crore have been recommended to be funded through the Simhasth budget this year by the Divisional Committee. However, it’s worth noting that the state’s official budget for Simhasth is only ₹2,000 crore. This raises a valid question — will the fund be increased later, or will some of the planned works be dropped? Biggest challenges: managing the crowd and ensuring clean water The two biggest challenges of hosting the Simhasth are handling such a huge crowd and making sure the devotees get to bathe in clean water. For this, the city needs wider inner roads, more bridges, and extended ghats on the river. Sadly, the local administration hasn’t made much progress on any of these. Important projects like ropeways for better traffic flow, a parallel railway overbridge at Freeganj, and several others have been approved, but they’re yet to actually begin.