Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi will visit Varanasi on 7th July, 2022. At around 2 PM, Prime Minister will inaugurate the Akshay Patra Mid Day Meal Kitchen at LT College, Varanasi, which has a capacity of cooking mid day meals for around one lakh students. At around 2:45 PM, Prime Minister will visit the International Cooperation and Convention Centre-Rudraksh, where he will inaugurate Akhil Bhartiya Shiksha Samagam on implementation of the National Education Policy. Thereafter, at around 4 PM, Prime Minister will reach Dr. Sampurnanand Sports Stadium, Sigra where he will inaugurate and lay the foundation stone of multiple projects worth over Rs. 1800 crores.

Inauguration and foundation stone of multiple development initiatives

In the last eight years, Prime Minister has put a lot of focus on infrastructure development in Varanasi. This has resulted in the transformation of the landscape of the city. The primary focus of this endeavour has been enhancing ease of living for the people. Taking another step in this direction, during the programme at Dr. Sampurnanand Sports Stadium, Sigra, Prime Minister will inaugurate projects worth over Rs 590 crores. Among these are multiple initiatives under Varanasi Smart City and Urban Projects, including re-development of Namo Ghat in Phase-I along with construction of bathing jetty; conversion of diesel and petrol engines of 500 boats into CNG; redevelopment of Kameshwar Mahadev ward of Old Kashi and over 600 EWS flats constructed in village Harhua, Dasepur; new Vending Zone and urban place prepared under Lahartara-Chowka Ghat Flyover; tourist facility and market complex at Dashashwamedh Ghat; and 33/11 KV Substation at Nagwa under IPDS Work Phase-3.

Prime Minister will also inaugurate various road projects including construction of Four Lane Road over bridge (ROB) on Babatpur-Kapsethi-Bhadohi Road; Bridge on Varuna River on Central Jail road; widening of Pindra-Kathiraon Road; widening of Phoolpur-Sindhaura Link Road; strengthening and construction of 8 rural roads; construction of 7 PMGSY roads and widening of Dharsauna-Sindhaura road.

Prime Minister will also inaugurate various projects related to improvement of sewerage and water supply in the district. These include rehabilitation of Old Trunk Sewer Line in Varanasi City through trenchless technology; laying of sewer lines; over 25000 sewer house connections in Trans Varuna area; leakage repair works in Sis Varuna area of the city; rural drinking water scheme at Taatepur village, etc. Various social and education sector related projects to be inaugurated include ITI at Village Mahgaon, Phase-II of Vedic Vigyan Kendra in BHU, Govt. Girls Home at Ramnagar, Theme Park in  Govt. Old Age Women Home at Durgakund.

Prime Minister  will inaugurate synthetic athletic track and synthetic basketball court in Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar Sports Complex, Bada Lalpur and various police and safety fire projects including non-residential Police Station building at Sindhaura, construction of hostel rooms, barracks in Mirzamurad, Cholapur, Jansa and Kapsethi police stations and building of Fire Extinguisher Centre in Pindra.

During the programme,  Prime Minister will also lay the foundation stone of projects worth more than Rs 1200 crores. Among these are multiple road infrastructure projects including six lane widening of road from Lahartara - BHU to Vijaya Cinema; four lane widening of road from Pandeypur Flyover to Ring Road; Four lane of road from Kuchaheri to Sandaha; widening and strengthening of Varanasi Bhadohi Rural Road; construction of five new Roads and four CC roads in Varanasi rural area; construction of ROB near Babatpur railway station on Babatpur-Chaubeypur road. These projects will significantly help in reducing the traffic load on city and rural roads.

To give a fillip to tourism in the region, Prime Minister will lay foundation stone of multiple projects including development work of Sarnath Buddhist Circuit under World Bank aided UP Pro-Poor tourism development project, construction of Paavan Path for Asht Vinakaya, Dwadash Jyotirling Yatra, Asht Bhairaw, Nav Gauri Yatra, Tourism Development work of five stoppages in Panchkosi Parikrama Yatra Marg and Tourism development various wards in Old Kashi.

Prime Minister will also lay the foundation of Phase-1 of redevelopment works of Sports Stadium at Sigra.

Akhil Bhartiya Shiksha Samagam

Prime Minister will inaugurate “Akhil Bhartiya Shiksha Samagam” at International Cooperation and Convention Centre-Rudraksh. Shiksha Samagam is being organised by the Ministry of Education from 7th to 9th July. It will provide a platform to eminent academicians, policy makers and academic leaders to deliberate and share their experiences and to discuss the roadmap for effective implementation of National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. The event is being organised as part of capacity building of more than 300 Academic, Administrative & Institutional Leaders from Universities (Central, State, Deemed, Private), Institutes of National Importance (IIT, IIM, NIT, IISER) from all over the country. Various stakeholders would present progress of implementation of NEP in their respective institutions and would also share noteworthy implementation strategies, best practices and success stories.

During the three day Shiksha Samagam, panel discussions on nine themes identified for Higher Education under NEP 2020 will be conducted. These themes are Multidisciplinary and Holistic Education; Skill Development and Employability; Research, Innovation and Entrepreneurship; Capacity Building of Teachers for Quality Education; Quality, Ranking and Accreditation; Digital Empowerment and Online Education; Equitable and Inclusive Education; Indian Knowledge System; and Internationalisation of Higher Education.

*****

DS/ST