Mumbai's Siddhivinayak Temple gets nod to buy 20 adjoining units for ₹94 crore

The Maharashtra government has approved a ₹94.12-crore proposal by the Shree Siddhivinayak Ganpati Mandir Trust to acquire 20 residential and commercial units in the adjoining Ram Mansion Cooperative Housing Society in Prabhadevi. The acquisition was approved to ease crowd management and expand facilities for devotees at one of Mumbai’s busiest temples.

The government has authorised the trust to purchase the residential units at ₹66,000 per square foot, calculated on the basis of the existing carpet area, with the price of an additional 40% carpet area thrown in to make the offer tempting. The commercial premises will be acquired at ₹1.11 lakh per square foot. A government resolution to this effect was issued on Thursday by the state law and judiciary department, which controls the temple trust.

Ram Mansion is a three-storey residential building located on a 708 square-metre private plot next to the temple, and its acquisition is part of a ₹100-crore expansion plan of the two-century old temple. The temple trust is also in talks with the Siddhivinayak Cooperative Housing Society, located on the trust’s land next to the temple, for acquisition. Together, the two plots measure around 1,800 square meters.

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On Thursday, the state law and judiciary department approved the purchase consideration for Ram Mansion at ₹94,11,65,550. This includes stamp duty, registration charges and other incidental expenses that will be paid from the trust’s available funds. The government has clarified that the acquisition will not impose any financial burden on the state exchequer.

“The property, located next to the temple’s existing waiting hall, is expected to provide much-needed space for managing queues and developing facilities such as a canteen, kitchen, storage area, accommodation for pilgrims and limited parking,” states the order.

Built in 1801, the Siddhivinayak Temple is one of Mumbai’s most prominent temples. It is known for its unique Ganpati idol with a right-turned trunk. The temple currently faces space constraints, as large numbers of devotees visit it from across the country and abroad. During festivals and other periods of heavy footfall, the trust incurs substantial recurring expenditure on temporary structures and crowd-management arrangements.

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“The proposed acquisition is intended to address some of these logistical challenges by expanding the space available for visitor facilities,” said a senior law and judiciary official.

The Trust’s managing committee had granted in-principle approval for the residential purchase rate at its meeting on March 31, 2025. It subsequently approved the proposed rate for commercial premises at a meeting on July 7, 2025, subject to government clearance.

The decision came over two months after the state government ordered an audit of the Shree Siddhivinayak Temple Trust’s accounts for the last five years, following allegations of theft of donations made by devotees at the temple, one of the wealthiest in the country.