The government plans to promote the Kumbh Mela as a destination for tourists, and encourage visitors and dignitaries from foreign countries to attend the event. The Kumbh Mela will be held between January 15 and March 4 next year in Allahabad. Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants to promote the religious congregation as an international event and a destination for tourists as well as pilgrims, Uttar Pradesh minister Sidharth Nath Singh said. The PM wants the state government to invite dignitaries of foreign countries for the event, Singh added. As part of the promotion, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will take a group of diplomats, including ambassadors and high commissioners, to Allahabad in December ahead of the event. The PM may also invite some heads of states, sources said. Special arrangements will be made for the invitees and participants of Pravasi Bharatiya Divas, which will be held in Varanasi from January 21-23, to be taken to Allahabad for the Kumbh Mela. “Those who want to take a holy dip at Prayag will be given the opportunity,” Singh said. Singh said the Centre has cleared Rs 1,200 crore for conducting Kumbh Mela. The Yogi Adityanath government has changed the nomenclature of the mega religious congregation, held every six years and known as Ardh Kumbh so far, to Kumbh Mela. For foreign visitors at the Kumbh Mela, there will be 1,000 Swiss cottages including luxurious ones in Arail area across the river. “The tourists will be brought to the Mela venue by hovercraft,” Singh said. According to a state government official, both the central and state governments want the Kumbh Mela this time to go beyond sadhus and become a tourism event.
