Trimbakeshwar municipal council president Triveni Tungar has urged Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis to protect the town’s traditional wadas, historic buildings and old homes from demolition or displacement during road-widening work planned ahead of the Simhastha Kumbh Mela. She submitted a memorandum to the chief minister on Sunday after a joint consultation involving religious leaders, residents, councillors, public representatives and administrative officials.
Tungar said the historic structures were part of Trimbakeshwar’s character and should not be removed in the name of development. The appeal comes as authorities prepare infrastructure for the religious gathering, which is expected to place additional demands on the town’s roads and public facilities.
The council president argued that the need for extensive widening through Trimbakeshwar’s traditional neighbourhoods had reduced because new bathing ghats are being built outside the main town area along the Godavari river. The ghats will extend for 2.5 km and are intended to provide alternative arrangements for the holy dip during the festival.
According to Tungar, shifting bathing activity outside the town could regulate and decentralise crowd movement. She said large gatherings would therefore be less likely to enter the narrow inner core, making aggressive road expansion through established residential areas unnecessary. She sought only essential infrastructure work and said the municipal council should be consulted before projects are taken forward.
The council has also adopted a resolution seeking protection for about 40 land parcels identified for possible acquisition. The demand covers properties where owners have developed land with permission, started the development process or made payments to the civic body, according to council chief officer Ganesh Jadhav.
“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 two infrastructure priorities alongside each other: preparing Trimbakeshwar for a major religious congregation while retaining the town’s historic built fabric. The council’s position is that crowd-management arrangements outside the core should be taken into account before land is acquired or traditional neighbourhoods are altered.
The memorandum followed a consultation attended by sadhus and mahants from all akhadas, senior citizens, former and serving councillors, public representatives and administrative officials. The state government’s response to the request to spare the identified parcels and limit road-widening interventions will determine the next step in the affected areas.
