Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday inaugurated a slew of major infrastructure projects in his Lok Sabha constituency Varanasi.
Ring Road, Babatpur Airport road
Modi inaugurated two important roads, having a total length of 34 kilometres and built at a cost of Rs 1,571.95 crore, in Varanasi.
The 16.55-km-long Varanasi Ring Road Phase-I has been built at a cost of Rs 759.36 crore, while the work of four-laning and construction of 17.25 km Babatput-Varanasi road on NH-56 cost Rs 812.59 crore, an official release said.
The Babatpur Airport highway will connect the city with the airport and go on to link Jaunpur, Sultanpur and Lucknow. With a flyover at Harhua and a rail overbridge at Tarna, it will reduce the travel time from Varanasi to the airport, providing a big relief to the people of the holy city and tourists.
The Ring Road, with two rail overbridges and a flyover, will allow traffic on NH 56 (Lucknow-Varanasi), NH 233 (Azamgarh-Varanasi), NH 29 (Gorakhpur-Varanasi) and Ayodhya-Varanasi highways to bypass Varanasi, thereby reducing traffic congestion in the city. This will reduce travel time, fuel usage and pollution in the area.
The Ring Road will provide easier and more convenient access to Sarnath, an important site for Buddhist pilgrimage. These projects will also provide increased employment opportunities, development of small and medium industries and give a boost to economic development in the area.
Currently, national highway projects of total length 2833 km, costing Rs 63,885 crore are underway to link Varanasi with other places in eastern Uttar Pradesh.
Of these, 15 road projects of 1143 kilometre length are under various stages of construction. These include Varanasi-Jaunpur, Varanasi-Sultanpur, Sultanpur-Lucknow, Varanasi Ghaghra Bridge, Varanasi-Azamgarh among others.
Besides, there are seven targeted projects of 235 km costing Rs 8,265 crore. Also, 20 projects for 1455 km roads are in detailed project report stage.
First multi-modal terminal on inland waterways
Modi inaugurated India's first multi-modal terminal on the Ganga river in Varanasi and received the country's first container cargo transported on inland waterways from Kolkata.
The first consignment containing food and beverage had set sail from Kolkata in the last week of October.
This is the first of the four multi-modal terminals being constructed on the National Waterway-1 (river Ganga) as part of the World Bank-aided Jal Marg Vikas project of the Inland Waterways Authority of India.
The total estimated cost of the project is Rs 5,369.18 crore, which will be equally shared between the Government of India and the World Bank.
According to an official statement, the Centre's Jal Marg Vikas Project aims at developing the stretch of the river between Varanasi and Haldia for navigation of large vessels weighing up to 1,500 tonnes to 2,000 tonnes.
Its objective is to promote inland waterways as a cheap and environment-friendly means of transportation, especially for cargo movement. The Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) is the project implementing agency.
The project entails construction of three multi-modal terminals (Varanasi, Sahibganj and Haldia), two inter-modal terminals, five roll-on-roll-off (Ro-Ro) terminal pairs, new navigation lock at Farakka in West Bengal, assured depth dredging, integrated vessel repair and maintenance facility, differential global positioning system (DGPS), river information system (RIS), river training.
Sewage infrastructure projects
Modi inaugurated two sewage infrastructure projects worth Rs 425.41 crore in Varanasi and laid the foundation stone for another project worth Rs 72.91 crore for Ramnagar.
Among the projects inaugurated, the first is a 140 million litres per day (MLD) sewage treatment plant (STP) at Dinapur built at a cost of Rs 235.53 crore. The project includes 10 years of operation and maintenance agreement.
The second project includes three sewage pumping stations at Chaukaghat (140 MLD), Phulwaria (7.6 MLD) and Saraiya (3.7 MLD). The total cost for these three pumping stations is Rs 34.01 crore.
Another project is the construction of a 28-km-long relieving trunk sewer, rising mains and interceptor sewers along Varuna and Assi at a cost of Rs 155.87 crore.
The prime minister also laid the foundation stone for sewerage management scheme for Ramnagar which is expected to cost Rs 72.91 crore. This will include a 10 MLD STP and intercepting and diverting four drains.
These project along with two other ongoing projects of 120 MLD at Goitha and 50 MLD STP at Ramana will take the sewage treatment capacity in the city to 412 MLD, which will be adequate for the sewage treatment requirements till year 2035.
This will prevent pollution of river Ganga from drains in Ramnagar, an official release said.
There is no sewage treatment facility in the Ramnagar town.