One daring choice by Pintu Mahra, a boatman from Arail village on the banks of Triveni in Prayagraj, remodeled his household’s fortunes. By the point Mahakumbh ended, he had joined the elite membership of millionaires, with UP CM Yogi Adityanath highlighting his exceptional success story within the state meeting.
Pintu Mahra together with his kin, together with his mom, Shuklawati Mahra, on the Sangam banks in Prayagraj (HT )
Pintu and his household earned a staggering ₹30 crore in simply 45 days by working a fleet of boats throughout Mahakumbh. What as soon as fetched them ₹1,000 to ₹2,000 per day per boat skyrocketed to ₹50,000 to ₹52,000 day by day, marking a unprecedented turnaround.
Throughout a dialogue on the annual price range 2025-26 within the legislative meeting on March 4, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath shared successful story from the lately concluded Mahakumbh in Prayagraj—a boatman and his household earned ₹30 crore in simply 45 days. In accordance with the CM, the boatman owned 130 boats, every producing a mean revenue of ₹23 lakh through the grand spiritual gathering.
The central determine of that story is Pintu Mahra of Prayagraj. Aged round 45, Pintu, a boatman from the Arail space of Naini in Prayagraj, stated he purchased 70 boats for his household earlier than Mahakumbh. Every boat price ₹80,000, for which he didn’t find the money for. So, he needed to promote the jewellery of the ladies in his home and even mortgage the household’s land.
The ladies of the family resisted the transfer to promote jewellery, however that didn’t change Pintu’s choice.
Pintu stated that working boats has been his household’s inherited work for generations. “The sheer crowd that I saw coming to Sangam during Kumbh-2019 made me realize that this time, a much bigger crowd was going to come. So, I put everything my family owned at stake and bought 70 boats, allowing the family to have 130 boats just ahead of Mahakumbh-2025,” he shared.
“I employed around 300 youths to operate these boats, each requiring two to three persons per trip, from the early hours of the day to late evening,” he added.
There are greater than 100 members in his household, together with aunts, uncles, and cousins. The ladies of the home additionally tried to cease him, and his mom even received upset with him over his choice. However he didn’t hearken to anybody.
His mom, Shuklawati Devi, 62, now praises her son with tears of happiness in her eyes and is happy with his success. “After the death of my husband, Bacha Mahra, some years ago, our financial condition was not good. There was trouble due to ancestral enmity that had been raging for years, leading to several attacks on family members, some even losing their lives, along with long litigations and police investigations. But we recovered, and through operating boats, we attained financial stability. However, it is only now, owing to my son’s initiative of winning the tender to operate boats during Mahakumbh, that my whole family is financially secure and happy. I distributed sweets to everyone in the neighborhood following our success during Mahakumbh,” she shared.