I consider myself truly blessed to be in Ujjain during the Simhastha Kumbh Mahaparv. It is the world’s largest fair, a congregation of supreme faith and devotion. The Madhya Pradesh government has spent more than Rs 3,600 crore on making preparations for this gigantic religious event.
The festival went on for 30 days from 22-April-2016 to 21-May-2016.
The tentative area of the fair was a whopping 3000+ hectares. The entire area was divided into 6 Zones and 22 Sectors. The Zones were named as follows
Mahakaal Zone
Dutta Akhara Zone
Mangalnath Zone
Kal Bhairav Zone
Triveni Zone
Chamunda Mata Zone
Two Flag Railway Stations were specially established at Nai Khedi and Vikram Nagar exclusively for Simhasth Kumbh Mahaparv 2016. Trains coming to Ujjain were given a halt at these flag stations for the convenience of the pilgrims. At the same time Six Satellite towns were also created. 51 police chowkies stood guard during the Mahaparv 2016.
Now that was not all. Language experts of 22 local dialects served at the Simhastha call center to address the queries of the visitors. Language experts of Russian, French, German and English also provided their services at the centre. 10,000 foreigners visited Ujjain while a total of 7.5 crore people had taken part in the mela uptil the last day.
There were many cultural, religious and spiritual events on the sidelines of the event. There was a multi-religious meet where a Catholic bishop in Madhya Pradesh teamed up with leaders of other religions on May 3 to promote environmental awareness and better hygiene at the month-long festival. All the religious leaders stressed the need to conserve water.
It was truly an amazing gathering of people and the fact that it went off without any disturbance speaks of the wonderful arrangements provided by the government and various organizations.