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The Transient City: Kumbh at Prayag
May 30 @ 4:00 PM - 6:00 PM
The Mahakumbh 2025, hosted in Prayagraj at the Sangam of the Ganga, Yamuna, and the mythical Saraswati rivers, was far more than a festival, and stood as a luminous symbol of unity, spiritual purpose, and collective resilience. It emerged, once again, as a powerful confluence of millions, drawn together by faith, and tradition.
This year, the Mahakumbh was an extraordinary achievement in logistics, governance, and civic innovation. A fully functional, transient city rose from the floodplains, complete with roads, power, healthcare, water and sanitation facilities, and security infrastructure; all calibrated to serve tens of millions of pilgrims. This “transient city,” formally declared a district for the first time by the government of Uttar Pradesh, offered a living case study in adaptive urban planning and large-scale coordination.
Beyond its spiritual grandeur, the Maha Kumbh Mela 2025 unfolded as a meticulously orchestrated administrative event and an intricate tapestry where physical and social infrastructures converged to enable one of humanity’s greatest collective experiences. Applying a value chain lens to the event reveals how seamlessly sanitation, crowd management, healthcare, transport, security, and digital systems were interwoven to uphold cleanliness, safety, accessibility, and spiritual fulfilment. From the reclamation of land at the Sangam to the construction of a transient city with over 1.58 lakh tents, 67,000 streetlights, 30 pontoon bridges, 1.50 lakh sanitation units and AI-powered control mechanism; each component was not an isolated service but a deliberate link in a broader chain designed to deliver a unified, meaningful pilgrimage. This transient city which was simultaneously sacred and civic demonstrated how institutional capacity, technological innovation, and multi-agency coordination can transform a temporal space into a resilient, intelligent ecosystem.
This program is brought to you by the Institute for Competitiveness and the Consulate General of India in San Francisco in cooperation with the US-Asia Technology Management Center.
Registration:
Please register on Eventbrite here.
Registration closes at noon on Friday, May 30th. Only registered guests will be allowed into the event. Walk-ins will not be permitted. Attendees must present their ID at time of check-in.
Venue:
Consulate General of India – San Francisco
71 Stevenson Street
#2200
San Francisco, CA 94105
