Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be in Varanasi today. (File)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the first Multi-Modal Terminal on Ganga River in Varanasi. The Prime Minister will inaugurate two major national highways at his parliamentary constituency Varanasi today at 4 pm. The PM is also expected to announce a number of projects, including his government’s plans regarding the cleaning of the River Ganga. An official of the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) said eight projects at the cost of Rs 913.07 crore have been sanctioned for Varanasi under the Namami Gange programme.
PM Modi will lay the foundation stone for a sewage management project at Ramnagar worth Rs 72.91 crore. He will also inaugurate the four-lane widening of a road from Babatpur to Varanasi city, phase-1 of Varanasi Ring Road, inland waterways multi-model terminal and Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya, Daipur.
He will be laying foundation stones for a Drivers’ Training Institute for Varanasi district, a heliport in Ramnagar, a raised footpath on BHU Road etc. His announcements may also include a proposal for a meeting hall at Varanasi Circuit House. The prime minister will address a public meeting during his visit. He will be accompanied by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Union ministers Nitin Gadkari and Satyapal Singh.
PM Modi said that he was lucky to be a part Ganga darshan today. "Today's day is historic for all of Kashi, Purvanchal, east India and the whole of India. Today Varanasi and the whole country have become witness to that work of development which was supposed to be done decades ago but wasn't done", he said. Many projects to strengthen the efforts to reduce pollution in the river Ganga have been dedicated to the people today.
Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said that the decision to use water as a mean of transport was taken in 1986 but no work was properly started before Modi ji became the PM in 2014. This year we will transport 80 lakh tonne of cargo. After this, within 1-2 years, 270 lakh tonnes of transport will be through the Ganga. If it takes Rs 10 to travel through road, Rs 6 through railways, then to go through water it will take Rs 1.
The Jal Marg Vikas Project, implemented by the Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI), involves the construction of three multi-modal terminals (Varanasi, Sahibganj and Haldia), two inter-modal terminals, five roll-on-roll-off terminal pairs, a new navigation lock at Farakka in West Bengal, integrated vessel repair and maintenance facility, differential GPS, river training and river information system. 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.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi received the first consignment of containers moving on the Ganga from Kolkata to Varanasi on November 12 as India revives its inland waterways for freight movement. The shipment of 16 containers owned by PepsiCo will reach the new multi-modal terminal dedicated to the nation by the PM. The Kolkata to Varanasi route is part of what is called National Waterways-1.
The Multi-Modal Terminal project on River Ganga was started in June 2016 and holds the terminal capacity of 1.26 MPTA. The terminal project in Varanasi is built at a cost of Rs 206 crores. The Jal Marg Vikas project (JMVP) is being implemented with the technical assistance and investment support of the World Bank, at an estimated cost of Rs. 5,369 crores on a 50:50 sharing basis between Government of India and the World Bank. Read more about multi-modal terminal project
The multi-modal terminal is a part of the Central government's Jal Marg Vikas Project (JMVP). The project aims the development of the strect between river Ganga and Varanasi for the navigation of large vessels.
Two highway projects and one inland waterway project to be a part of the Jal Marg Vikas Project in PM Modi's parliamentary constituency Varanasi. A sewage treatment plant to come at Dimapur.
PM Modi reviews development projects in Varanasi. Mega projects lined up for inauguration today.
Making a strong pitch for development at a poll rally in Chhattisgarh, he said that the state would have never been able to achieve the growth under Congress which it has under the BJP-led government. The PM hit out at Congress president Rahul Gandhi and his mother Sonia Gandhi for questioning the government’s demonetisation move, saying the “mother-son duo” was out on bail and “those out on bail should not give a certificate to Modi”.
The prime minister will be laying foundation stones for a Drivers’ Training Institute for Varanasi district, a heliport in Ramnagar, a raised footpath on BHU Road etc. His announcements may also include a proposal for a meeting hall at Varanasi Circuit House.