Maharashtra: Temple towns hope for economic revival

NASHIK/KOLHAPUR: The state government’s decision to reopen temples after nine months of closure in view of the coronavirus pandemic has come as a huge relief for the administrations as well as traders in temple towns across Maharashtra.
They are now looking forward to making up for the losses suffered, at least to some extent as the main festive and holiday season is at its fag end.The festive season and holidays bring lakhs of devotees and tourists to the temple towns, including Shirdi, Pandharpur and Kolhapur, thus boosting the economy as hotels, eateries and vendors earn enough to last for the year.
Closure of the Trimbakeshwar temple – one of the 12 Jyotirlingas in the country — had brought all trade in this tribaldominated town, about 30km from Nashik, to a halt.
“The entire income of Trimbakeshwar municipal council is based on eligious tourism. Our monthly vehicle tax is around Rs 6 lakh and the tax collected from the shops is Rs 3.5 lakh. There has been no income for the past nine months,” said Purushottam Lohagaonkar, president of the council.
Temple towns hope for economic revival
Amarnath Chhallani, who owns a hotel in Trimbakeshwar, said, “There are around 25 hotels with over 20 rooms and hundreds of other stay facilities. None of them has been occupied this time as against 100% occupancy during Diwali every year”.
For the first time, hotels in Kolhapur city are sporting a deserted look during Diwali. Sachin Shanbag, vice-president of Kolhapur Hoteliers Association, said, “This time, not even 10% of the hotel rooms are booked for the Diwali vacation. Till the time that Mahalaxmi temple and other places such as Rankala lake are closed for public, there is no point in opening hotels. The situation is going to be the same.”
The Tuljabhavani temple in Osmanabad district gets lakhs of devotees. Traders here are worried about the mounting rent. “The business we usually do during Navaratra and Diwali is enough to pay the rent for the entire year. We have sought rent waiver this year as during Diwali, the temple is going to remain shut,” said a trader.
Unlike previous years, the temple town of Shirdi will not have any visitors during Diwali. Authorities of Shri Saibaba Sansthan Trust, Shirdi, claimed that usually 65,000 people visit the temple daily during the vacations. Even donations from devotees have dropped by almost 50%.
“It’s meaningless for the hotels in Shirdi to reopen without Sai temple opening for the devotees. Usually, during Diwali, all the hotels have near full occupancy. But this year, they are all closed,” said Abhay Shelke Patil, chief of Shirdi Hotel Association. Usually, the monthly turnover of these hotels is about Rs 5 crore.
Gahininath Maharaj, chairman of Pandharpur's Vitthal-Rukhmini temple, said the religious towns prosper economically because of the temples. “This year, all the religious activities are low key due to the Covid-related restrictions. We had urged the government to open temples at least before Diwali.”