Fresh threat of swelling Ganga to tent city project in Varanasi

Varanasi: The ambitious tent city project is facing a fresh threat of getting delayed with the Ganga registering a rising trend.
Officials said the rise in the Ganga level has jolted the bid of Varanasi Development Authority — the nodal agency responsible for executing the project — to complete basic infrastructure of providing power, water and sewage connection in order to ensure that the tent city is ready by the festival of Dev Deepawali on November 7 when it is to accommodate and serve tourists and locals thronging the city.
As per the morning bulletin of the Central Water Commission’s Middle Ganga Division office, the river level was stable in Varanasi at 65.01 meter mark till Tuesday morning, although it had adopted a rising trend in Phaphamau and Prayagraj. But, the rising trend downstream of the river started by late Tuesday evening and on Wednesday morning, an increase of over 40 centimetres was recovered in Varanasi. The rising trend is likely to continue in view of the increasing level of the Ganga upstream.
Regarding the new threat of delay in the tent city project, VDA vice-chairman Abhishek Goyal said, “This year, the level of the Ganga was already above its normal level recorded after September-end. As the process of awarding a contract for developing the tent city was completed last month, we had started work on our part. On the sand bed, which became available after the water level receded, we had started installing electric poles and laying the lines of water supply and sewage.”
“For providing water supply to the tent city, the work of boring had also been started,” he said, adding, “As the river has started inundating the sand bed again, the process of completing the work is getting hampered. The officials are finding them helpless as they don’t have any option than to wait till the water recedes.”
The process of bidding for the contract of this flagship project of developing a tent city on the sand bank of the Ganga opposite the mythological ghats for boosting tourism in Varanasi had been completed in the last week of September. Two companies, Praveg Communications (India) Limited and Lalluji and Sons of Ahmedabad, were awarded the contract to develop two and one clusters, respectively, in the river upstream near Ramnagar by the VDA.
“VDA had to ensure basic infrastructure including sewage, water and power supply facilities for which it needed a minimum 15 days to complete these basic preparations,” said officials. But, the work could not be started with desired pace as the water level remained high and kept the maximum part of the project area inundated.
After VDA will end the work, the two companies will start developing three clusters of 200 tents each on the opposite side of Assi Ghat. Each cluster will come up in 10 hectares and contain accommodation in villa, super deluxe and deluxe categories in separate Swiss cottages. Apart from these the clusters will also have reception area, gaming zones, dining area, restaurants, conference sites, spa and yoga centres, library, art galleries, water sports, cultural and other sports activities.
Goyal said that VDA and both companies have kept them ready to start work with an accelerated pace immediately after the water level would recede and clear the area on which the project has to come up.