With Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurating the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor project on Monday, one more feather has been added to his cap about the conservation of temples. He will visit Shri Kashi Vishwanath Temple and offer prayers, after which he will inaugurate phase 1 of Shri Kashi Vishwanath Dham, constructed at a cost of around Rs 339 crores. 

 

It has been the vision of the Prime Minister for a long time, to facilitate the pilgrims and devotees of Baba Vishwanath, who had to encounter congested streets and surroundings with poor upkeep, when they practiced the age-old custom of taking a dip in the holy river, collecting Gangajal and offering it at the temple. To realize this vision, Shri Kashi Vishwanath Dham was conceptualized as a project to create an easily accessible pathway to connect Shri Kashi Vishwanath Temple to the banks of the River Ganga. To kickstart the work for this pious endeavor, the foundation stone of the project was laid by the Prime Minister on 8th March 2019.

 

 

 

Prime Minister took a keen and active interest at all stages of the project. Regular briefings, reviews and monitoring was done by the Prime Minister himself, and he constantly gave inputs and insights to improve the project and make it more accessible for pilgrims, including for the disabled. The project was designed to provide easy access for the disabled and old age people with provision of ramps, escalators, and other modern facilities.

 

Prime Minister’s vision was also to ensure that all heritage structures be preserved during the course of development of the project. This foresight came handy when, during the process of destruction of the old properties, more than 40 ancient temples were rediscovered. These temples have been restored and beautified, while ensuring that there is no change in the original structure.

 

However, this is not the only project that PM Modi has shown interest to boost developments in Kashi. Since few years, Kashi has been a drastic transformation under the leadership of PM Modi. He has even described the land of Kashi as one which gave us "Shiksha Ki Sanskriti".

 

In his own words to the people of Kashi –

 

 

In his many visits, apart from his interactive sessions with the people of Varanasi, PM Modi is seen inaugurating a hospital, or flagging off an express train, laying the foundation stone for a ring road or making Kashi the first multi modal hub on an inland waterway. Another aspect of this development process in the last five years and the difference it has brought, can be seen in the completion of projects in a time bound manner.

 

Be it the widening of National Highways, the up-gradation of the Panchkosi Parikrama Marg, Multi-modal transport terminals, multi-level parking spaces like at Gowdolia, the Rudraksh convention centre, the state-of-the-art sewage treatment framework or the Integrated command and control centre – the PM Modi-led administration went to work in Kashi with complete dedication and managed to make one of the oldest Indian cities even better.

 

Not only is Kashi witnessing development on a large scale but people of the city are also experiencing what it is like if their MP is the PM. When the PM is your MP, and when the PM happens to be someone who’s transforming the face of the country itself, the constituency will clearly see fast-paced, unprecedented, and impactful progress.