Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to inaugurate on Monday the Kashi Vishwanath corridor project, surrounding the Kashi Vishwanath temple near Dashashwamedh Ghat in Uttar Pradesh's Varanasi.
The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) said in a statement that PM Modi, who represents Varanasi in Lok Sabha, will visit the temple around 1 pm and inaugurate Phase 1 of the Shri Kashi Vishwanath Dham after offering prayers. This will add to Kashi's spiritual vibrancy, said PM Modi in a tweet, sharing the update about the inauguration in the holy town.
The project was conceptualised as a project to create an easily accessible pathway to connect the historic Kashi Vishwanath temple to the banks of the River Ganga, said a PMO statement.
The Phase 1 of the project has been built at a cost of Rs 339 crore.
Twenty-three buildings will be inaugurated in the phase 1 of the project offering diverse facilities to pilgrims and devotees.
The gateways and other structures have been built with stones and other material using traditional craftsmanship.
The project is spread over an area of 5 lakh square feet while the earlier premises was limited to just around 3,000 square feet.
The temple corridor project involved purchase and acquisitions of over 300 properties around the temple.
Around 1,400 shopkeepers, tenants and homeowners were rehabilitated in the process.
During the process of destruction of the old properties, over 40 ancient temples were rediscovered and restored, said PMO.
The foundation stone for the temple corridor project was laid in 2019.
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