Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in the ancient town of Varanasi for a two-day visit on Monday, December 13. Varanasi has been decked up to welcome the Prime Minister. Massive murals depicting the city's culture, art and history of the city. A number of buildings around the venerated Kashi Vishwanath temple have been illuminated with lights. The PM is visiting Varanasi for inaugurating the first phase of the construction of the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor.
Upon landing in Varanasi, the PM who was greeted by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, paid obeisance at the Kaal Bhairav Temple and then took dip in Ganga from where he collected holy water for worship at the Kashi Vishwanath Temple.
Inaugurating the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor,
The inauguration of the state-of-the-art infrastructure surrounding the historic Kashi Vishwanath Temple comes ahead of the assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh early next year. Taking to Twitter on Sunday night, PM Modi shared photos of the temple in Varanasi and referred to December 13 as a "landmark" day.
"At a special programme in Kashi, the Shri Kashi Vishwanath Dham project will be inaugurated. This will add to Kashi's spiritual vibrancy. I would urge you all to join tomorrow's programme," he said.
Outlook compiled all you need to know about the PM's Varanasi visit in 10 points.
1. The Kashi Vishwanath Corridor will connect the ghats to the historic Kashi Vishwanath Dham near the iconic Dashashwamedh Ghat. The grand project was constructed at a cost of Rs 339 crore.
2. PM Modi said the whole new complex of the Kashi Vishwanath Dham is not just a grand building, but a symbol of the "Sanatan culture" of India, our spiritual soul and India's antiquity and traditions.
3. The inauguration event, named "Divya Kashi, Bhavya Kashi", has caused much excitement in Varanasi, which is also represented by the PM himself in Lok Sabha. On Sunday, a “Shiv Barat” procession was taken out in the streets of the city in anticipation of the event.
4. The current structure of the temple was constructed by Maharani Ahilyabai Holkar around 1780 and in the 19th century, Maharaja Ranjit Singh had got it crowned with a golden “shikhar”.
5. Under the project, the area of the premises has been expanded from 3,000 square feet to about five lakh square feet. 40 of the ancient temples have also been restored to their former beauty under the project. 23 new buildings have also been added to the premises to provide a range of facilities to devotees.
6. The variety of facilities to be made available to pilgrims in the 23 new buildings include "suvidha kendras", "vedic kendra", city museum, "mumukshu bhavan", "bhogshala", tourist facilitation centre, viewing gallery and food court among others.
7. The foundation stone for the project was laid by PM Modi on March 8, 2019. Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, the work on the project has been completed on schedule, the PMO said.
8. As per reports, PM Modi will first travel to Sampurnanand Sanskrit University on a chopper. He will then be travelling to the Kal Bhairav Mandir following which he will arrive at the ghats via water for the inauguration. After the inauguration, he will take a walk around the newly constructed premises. The event was attended by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, BJP President J P Nadda and a large number of saints from across the country attended the ceremony. 3,000 seers along with other noted artists and personalities were also present.
9. The event will also spread the message of environmentalism with special arrangements being put in place to plant trees along the temple premises. According to a report in India Today, the Corridor will be decorated with trees like Amla, Ashok, Bael, Rudrakhs and others. Following the inauguration, prasad from the Kashi Vishwanath temple will be distributed among 8 lakh families.
10. Ahead of the PM's visit, the Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday claimed the project was approved during his term and there was documentary evidence of it. He alleged that the BJP government has lined up a series of programmes to herald the start of the corridor only to deflect people's attention from PM's failure to double the income of farmers.
(With inputs from PTI)
