Marble, granite to adorn ₹800-cr Kashi Vishwanath Corridor

The Kashi Vishwanath Corridor, an expansion and beautification project for the Kashi Vishwanath temple which will ensure visibility of the temple directly from the ghat, will be embellished with Baleshwar stones, Makrana marble, Kota granite and Mandana stones, officials said Monday.

The construction of the corridor is underway across an area of 5 lakh sq ft area. A number of facilities for the devotees are coming up.

The Public Works Department (PWD) is the executing agency of the ₹800-crore project.

“Construction work of the KV Corridor is in progress. Its structure is being built. Red sandstone of Chunar is being used in making the pillars,” said Sanjay Gore, executive engineer of the PWD.

Baleshwar stone will also be used in the Kashi Vishwanath corridor after four or five months, when the wall of the corridor takes shape.

Likewise, Makrana marble will be required for the flooring of the corridor while the designing of the corridor would be done with Kota granite. Mandana stone, which looks like the red sandstone of Chunar, would be used on the stairs to be built at the ghat, said officials.

Stones of various sorts will add to the grandeur to the corridor that has started taking shape gradually with work on at full pace.

“At present, 900 workers are engaged in the central government’s flagship project for Varanasi. The workforce will be increased to 2,500 in October,” said Deepak Agarwal, divisional commissioner.

He said officials of Shri Kashi Vishwanath Special Area Development Board and PWD would ensure completion of the project by the deadline of October 2021.

As many as 290 buildings were acquired and demolished to create space for the project.

The Adityanath government had formed the Shri Kashi Vishwanath Special Area Development Board to ensure completion of the project.