Adhikari starts work on the first Gangasagar Melā under a BJP government, promising to make it "an international event"
A "mela officer" will be posted on Sagar Island for two months, but the Muri Gaṅgā bridge to the island is now promised only for 2029.
- Hindustan Times
West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari has begun preparations for the January 2027 Gangasagar Melā, the first since the BJP came to power in the State in May 2026, Hindustan Times reported. "We have come to transform the upcoming Gangasagar Mela into an international event," Adhikari said at a rally in Kakdwip, the mainland gateway to Sagar Island.
He held an initial meeting with senior bureaucrats and top police officers on Saturday and set deadlines for departments, an official said, and a high-level meeting at the State secretariat is expected in the coming weeks. The government plans to post senior IAS officers at Kakdwip and on Sagar Island, with one designated as the "mela officer" and stationed there for the next two months to coordinate departments.
The melā is held every January on Makara Saṅkrānti, when pilgrims bathe at the confluence of the Gaṅgā and the Bay of Bengal in South 24 Parganas district, and Hindustan Times describes it as the second-largest congregation of Hindu pilgrims in India after the Prayagraj Kumbh. In its 2026 manifesto, the BJP promised to develop the melā into an international spiritual and cultural festival with Central support and to pursue its inclusion in UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list.
In July, ETV Bharat reported, the new government wrote to the Union Ministry of Culture seeking "national fair" status for the melā, a request the previous Trinamool government had made without success, and asked that it be included under the PRASAD pilgrimage scheme. Connectivity remains the main constraint, since pilgrims now reach the island by ferry.
Former Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee laid the foundation stone in January for a bridge over the Muri Gaṅgā linking Sagar Island with Kakdwip. Adhikari alleged that "the previous government lied about the Muri Ganga bridge", saying no land had been acquired and no detailed project report drawn up, and promised to inaugurate the bridge in 2029.
That date falls after the 2027 melā, so the State's immediate task is to prepare the island for the January crowds, Hindustan Times noted.
Key data
Melā in January 2027 on Makara Saṅkrānti. BJP in power in Bengal since May 2026. "Mela officer" to be stationed for 2 months. Muri Gaṅgā bridge foundation stone January 2026; new inauguration target 2029. Kolkata's Durgā Pūjā received UNESCO intangible heritage status in 2021.
Why it matters
Gangasagar is the great winter tīrtha of eastern India, and national or UNESCO recognition would bring Central money and global attention to a pilgrimage long run on State funds alone. For pilgrims, the real test is safe ferries and crowd control this January.
GK: did you know?
In the Bālakāṇḍa of the Rāmāyaṇa, the sage Kapila reduces King Sagara's 60,000 sons to ashes, and Bhagīratha later brings the Gaṅgā down to liberate them; the Kapil Muni temple on Sagar Island marks this tradition.
