Ramnagar, Sujabad civic bodies merged in Varanasi Municipal Corporation

VARANASI: Ramnagar- the capital of erstwhile Kashi kingdom, having a 25 ward Palika Parishad since 1950, along with Sujabad Nagar Panchayat has been merged in the Varanasi Municipal Corporation with the approval of the state cabinet’s proposal to make the execution of development projects easier. Sujabad Nagar Panchayat was formed in December 2020.
The VMC, which had only sis-Ganga aeas under its limits will now also include the trans-Ganga area with this merger.
“Following the state cabinet’s nod given on Tuesday to the proposal of merger of these two civic bodies in the VMC now the preparations have been started for delimitation of wards of the VMC by including the areas covered under civic bodies of trans-Ganga townships of Ramnagar and Sujabad,” said divisional commissioner Deepak Agrawal while talking to TOI on Wednesday. He said, this work would be done with accelerated pace as civic bodies election is likely to take place in November.
On the purpose behind merging the two civic bodies, Agrawal said, “The proposal was made to ensure smooth execution of major development projects as well as giving benefits of VMC’s services to the denizens of trans-Ganga townships.”
VMC, having a population of 15,67,219 in its 16716.617 hectare area, currently has 90 wards. Following the merger of Ramnagar and Sujabad its area will increase to 18,256.017 hectare while population will become 16,36,659.
A municipal corporation can have a maximum of 100 wards, said Agrawal mentioning, now by including the areas of Ramnagar and Sujabad the delimitation of all wards of VMC will be done immediately after approval of the state government.
The merger of these two civic bodies in the VMC aims at ensuring ease of execution of development projects. Due to unavailability of land in city limits and increasing load of pilgrims on roads of old city areas, especially after the opening of Kashi Vishwanath Dham, has compelled the officials to explore alternative options to decongest the roads.
A four-lane road in trans-Ganga has been proposed for visitors crossing the Ganga by road to reach KV Dham through waterway. To ensure availability of land, the district administration has stopped registration of land on which the project is proposed.
A helipad projects was proposed at Domari and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had also laid its foundation in September 2018- the year when this village was adopted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. However, due to some reason, the project could not be executed.