Tannuka Juneja
Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently announced projects and schemes worth over ₹2,095 crore for Varanasi, including a biogas-based electricity generation plant, rural residential rights record, projects comprising a doctors’ hostel, a nurses’ hostel and a shelter home, an inter-university centre for teachers education, laying the foundation of projects worth ₹1225 crore.
The Prime Minister laid the foundation stone of Banas Dairy Sankul at UP State Industrial Development Authority Food Park, Karkhiyaon, Varanasi. Spread across 30 acres of land, the dairy will be built at a cost of about ₹475 crore and will have a facility for processing 5 lakh litres of milk per day.
Narendra Modi also laid the foundation stone for a biogas-based electricity generation plant for the Milk Producers Cooperative Union Plant, Ramnagar, Varanasi. It will be a key step towards making Milk Producers Cooperative Union Plant energy self-sufficient. A portal and logo dedicated to the Conformity Assessment Scheme of milk products, developed by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) with the help of the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) were also launched. And about ₹35 crore bonus was digitally transferred to the bank accounts of more than 1.7 lakh (170,000) milk producers associated with Banas Dairy.
In another effort to reduce the land ownership issues at the grass-root level, the Prime Minister virtually distributed the rural residential rights record “Gharauni” under the Swamitva scheme of the Union ministry of Panchayati raj, to over 20 lakh residents of Uttar Pradesh.
Multiple urban development projects, including six projects for the redevelopment of Old Kashi wards, a parking and surface park at Beniabagh, beautification of two ponds, a sewage treatment plant at Ramna village and advanced surveillance cameras at 720 locations under Smart City Mission will be inaugurated.
The union education ministry’s Inter-University Centre for Teachers Education, built at a cost of around ₹107 crores and a Teachers’ Education Centre at Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies, built at a cost of over ₹7 crores was also inaugurated. Further, Narendra Modi inaugurated the residential flats and staff quarters at BHU and ITI Karaundi.
The prime minister also inaugurated a project comprising a doctors’ hostel, a nurses’ hostel and a shelter home, built at Rs 130 crore, at the Mahamana Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya Cancer Centre, a 50-bed Integrated Ayush Hospital at Bhadrasi. He laid the foundation stone of the Rs 49 crore Government Homeopathic Medical College in Pindra tehsil under the Ayush Mission. In the road sector, Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for widening four-lane roads to six lanes for Prayagraj and Bhadohi. This will improve the connectivity of Varanasi and will be a step towards resolving the problem of the city’s traffic congestion.
To give a fillip to the tourism potential of the holy city, the prime minister inaugurated the first phase of the tourism development project related to the Shri Guru Ravidas Ji Temple, Seer Govardhan, Varanasi. Other projects inaugurated by the prime minister include a speed breeding facility at the International Rice Research Institute, the South Asia Regional Centre, Varanasi, a regional reference standards laboratory in Payakpur village and an advocate building in Pindra tehsil.
