PM Modi to inaugurate Kashi Vishwanath Corridor in Varanasi today

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will begin his two day-visit to Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh and will inaugurate phase 1 of the newly-constructed Kashi Vishwanath Dham. It has been constructed at a cost of around Rs 339 crores.

The Kashi Vishwanath Dham project will add to Kashi’s spiritual vibrancy, said PM Modi on his official Twitter account.

Shri Kashi Vishwanath Dham was abstracted as a project to create an easily accessible pathway to connect Shri Kashi Vishwanath Temple to the banks of the River Ganga.

To kick-start, the work for this spiritual endeavor, the foundation stone of the project was laid by the prime minister on 8 March 2019. Following this, regular briefings, reviews, and monitoring were 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.

In phase 1 of the project, a total of 23 buildings will be inaugurated. They will provide a variety of facilities to the pilgrims visiting Shri Kashi Vishwanath Temple including Yatri Suvidha Kendras, Tourist Facilitation Centre, Vedic Kendra, Mumukshu Bhavan, Bhogshala, city museum, viewing gallery, food court among others.

The project involved the purchase and acquisition of more than 300 properties around Shri Kashi Vishwanath Temple due to which around 1,400 shopkeepers, tenants, and homeowners were rehabilitated.

During the process of destruction of the old properties, more than 40 ancient temples were rediscovered.

The scale of the project is now spread over a massive area of about 5 lakh square feet whereas earlier premises was limited to just around 3,000 square feet.