Year-end visitors to Mahakal face biggest challenge in finding accommodation, parking

Indore: The year-end surge in faith tourists to the famed Jyotirlinga at Mahakaleshwar temple at Ujjain has strained hotel occupancy and parking capacity leaving visiting devotees at sea. With a daily turnout of about 2.5 lakh to 3 lakh visitors, finding an accommodation and getting the vehicle in the temple city is proving a herculean task.Hotels have jacked up prices almost two and half times while parking is a premium burning a hole in the pockets of visiting devotees.
With most visitors booking accommodation in advance through online portals, some last-minute visitors used their vehicles to stay put for rest and freshen up at the ghat to get a darshan of the famed jyotirlinga.According to estimates by the Ujjain administration, around 12 lakh devotees were expected to visit the temple city between Dec 25 and Jan 5, 2026. Official data showed that about 5.5 lakh devotees visited Ujjain between Dec 25 and 27 alone.Pilgrims from Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Southern India and Delhi drove the influx.A regular visitor Rajendra Jadhav from Nagpur in Maharashtra said parking emerged as a major challenge this time. "We come here frequently but finding a parking space and accommodation was very difficult this time."The Hotel Yatrigrah Association, Ujjain, said the city had a room inventory of around 40,000, including hotels and homestays. Rajesh Trivedi, president of the Hotel Yatrigrah Association, Ujjain, said, "Nearly one lakh visitors are staying in the city these days. Room demand has surged and expected to remain high until January first week. Room tariffs have gone up but not by more than 20%."Ujjain collector Roshan Singh said the administration significantly scaled up arrangements in view of the sustained inflow."Every day over 2 lakh visitors are coming to Ujjain. To manage the crowd, holding areas have been created to regulate queues from the Chardham area towards the Mahakal Temple, following the Triveni Museum stretch," he said.Singh added that mobile toilets were installed at multiple locations and 10 designated parking slots with a combined capacity of over 1,200 vehicles were made operational. A team was constituted to monitor hotel tariffs after complaints of sharp price hikes.To ensure a smooth darshan experience during the peak phase, the administration also introduced time-bound crowd-management measures, including regulation of Mahakal Lok darshan.Visitors largely welcomed the arrangements while flagging gaps.Pramod Gupta, who travelled from Kanpur, said, "There are not enough easily accessible toilets. This creates problems, especially for women."Umesh Pratap Singh Chouhan, a teacher from Etawah in Uttar Pradesh, said, "Devotees were not being allowed to visit Mahakal Lok due to the heavy rush. We came to see Mahakal Lok, but entry was restricted. Otherwise, all other facilities are very good. Drinking water and toilets are available."Another devotee, Neeraj Singh from Varanasi, said darshan took about 50 minutes on average and elderly devotees received assistance.Temple management data showed that from January 1, 2025 to Dec 15, 2025, nearly 5.5 crore devotees visited Ujjain, highlighting the city's growing stature as a year-round pilgrimage destination during India's expanding holiday travel season.