Varanasi Makeover To Cost Nearly 12,000 Crore

NEW DELHI: The anticipated metamorphosis of Varanasi, the ancient and spiritual city for Hindus, yet maddeningly chaotic and filthy, into a heritage site is estimated to cost a whopping Rs 11,800 crore (USD 2 billion), thanks to the high-level attention being showered on it because it is also now Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's parliamentary constituency.

The ambitious plan - to rejuvenate the soul of Varanasi, a city of 1.2 million, through heritage revitalization - envisages cruises on the Ganges, a Bhojpuri film city and an international centre for spiritualism and philosophy, an Urban Development Ministry official said.

The official said that the tentative date of the plan's launch is December 25, the birthday of BJP stalwart and former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Varanasi tops the list of 100 'smart cities' that Modi wants to create by 2019, when the next Lok Sabha elections are due.

In fact, the 63-year-old prime minister wants to develop the temple-town on the lines of ancient Japanese city Kyoto, whose deputy mayor visited Varanasi Thursday. Varanasi elected Modi to parliament in the May general election with a thumping majority.

One of the world's oldest cities, Varanasi is in bad shape, because of decades of cumulative political and municipal neglect, with filth, garbage and unplanned construction marring its landscape. Also, traffic is in shambles, so much so that stray cows make for dividers on the narrow roads.

Many of the ghats, thronged by tourists - both domestic and foreign - for their spiritual importance, are dirty and unsafe after dark.
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