If you plan to drive between Nashik and Trimbakeshwar on Friday or Saturday, expect to take the long way round. Nashik Additional District Magistrate Rohitkumar Rajput has notified diversions on the Trimbak road from 8 am on October 30 to 8 pm on October 31, covering the Simhastha Kumbh flag hoisting at Kushavarta Kund and the new ghat, according to the Free Press Journal and the Marathi daily Prahaar. He issued the order under Section 115 of the Motor Vehicles Act, which lets a district authority restrict or reroute traffic for public safety.
Earlier this month we reported that the Kumbh administration was treating this ceremony as its first crowd test and that the exact diversions were still pending. The notification now fills that gap for the Trimbakeshwar side.
The Khambale and Pegalwadi stretch is closed to through traffic
The order takes four regular routes out of use for the two days, as Prahaar lists them:
- Nashik to Trimbakeshwar via Pimpalgaon Bahula, Sandeep Foundation, Khambale and Pegalwadi Phata
- The return run from Jawhar and Mokhada through Amboli, Pegalwadi, Khambale and Sandeep Foundation to Nashik
- The Mumbai-side approach from Vaitarna Phata through Pahine and Pegalwadi
- The Pahine-Pegalwadi road in both directions
This is the direct road between the city and the temple town, so daily commuters and pilgrims on it lose their usual route for both days.
Four detours through Girnare and Sapgaon
Both papers give the same alternate routes. Most of them swing north through Govardhan and Girnare and rejoin near Sapgaon:
- Nashik to Trimbakeshwar: Amrut Chowk, Bardan Phata, Govardhan, Girnare, Dhondegaon, Devargaon, Waghera Phata, Amboli Phata, Sapgaon
- Trimbakeshwar to Nashik: Amboli T-point, Waghera Phata, Kone, Sapte, Devargaon, Girnare, Govardhan
- From Mumbai: come into Nashik from Vaitarna Phata, then follow the Nashik route via Amrut Garden, Bardan Phata, Govardhan, Girnare and Dhondegaon
- From Pahine: to Nashik via Ahurli, Sanjegaon and Wadiwarhe; to Trimbakeshwar via Bhilmal, Nirgudpada, Jambhulpada and Sapgaon
The district has asked the Public Works Department and the National Highways Authority of India to put up direction boards on these roads. Several of the detour villages sit on narrow district roads, so allow extra time, avoid heavy vehicles where you can, and fill up before you leave the city.
Ramkund holds its own ceremony at noon
The Trimbakeshwar order does not cover Nashik city. The flag will also go up at Ramkund in Panchavati, where the district rehearsed a programme of a short yagya and Godavari puja followed by the flag hoisting at a proposed 12:02 pm on October 31, Navbharat reported on Wednesday. The Trimbakeshwar traffic order cites the expected presence of President Droupadi Murmu and Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. Navbharat says the President’s programme still awaits approval from her office, after which a special security team will inspect the Ramkund venue.
Nashik police rehearsed security at Ramkund, the vegetable market ground and the Goda Aarti site last week with about 300 to 400 personnel, and said they would finalise the plan after more inspections, the Free Press Journal reported. Neither report names closed roads, parking lots or exempt vehicles for the city, so residents around Panchavati should watch for a separate police notice before Saturday.
The published order does not list exemptions for ambulances, school buses or local residents either. If you have a hospital appointment or a family function on those two days, build the detour into your timing.
Sources: Free Press Journal, Prahaar, Navbharat
This report was written with AI assistance from the publicly reported sources linked here; each fact was cross-checked against at least two of them.