Prime Minister Narendra Modi is going to gift India’s first public transport ropeway to his parliamentary constituency Varanasi on March 24.

Narendra Modi, along with the ropeway will lay the foundation stone for nine projects worth Rs 1592.49 crore while he will also inaugurate 20 other projects of Rs 189.41 crore. He is expected to stay in the city for around five hours. During this time, he will address a public meeting.

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According to officials here on Wednesday, the ropeway will run from Cantonment Railway Station (Varanasi Junction) to Godaulia Square.

The scheme is worth Rs 644.49 crore. After National Highway, Ring Road, Flyover, ROB in Varanasi, now rope way for public transport in the congested area will provide a lot of relief to local people as well as domestic and foreign tourists coming to Varanasi.

Vice-President of Varanasi Development Authority Abhishek Goyal said that the country’s first public transport ropeway will run between Varanasi Cantt to Godaulia in the first phase. Due to the narrowness of the roads in the old areas of Kashi and the continuous increase in the traffic pressure, there is often a situation of jam here. Due to which the local people have to face trouble apart from the local foreign tourists.

Anurag Tripathi, project director of National Highway Logistics Pvt Ltd, said that after Bolivia’s La Paz and Mexico, India will be the third country in the world and Varanasi will be the first city where ropeway will be used for public transport. He said that this is a pilot project and it will be jointly constructed by Swiss company Bertholet and National Highway Logistics Private Limited (NHLPL).

The project director informed that there will be a total of five stations from Varanasi Cantt station to Godaulia intersection. In which stations will be built at Cantt Railway Station, Kashi Vidyapeeth, Rath Yatra, Church and Godaulia Crossing. The total distance of the ropeway will be 3.8 kilometers which will be covered in about 16 minutes. About 150 trolley cars will run from a height of about 50 meters. A trolley can carry 10 passengers. Trolleys will be available for passengers at an interval of every one and a half to two minutes.

Around 3000 people will be able to travel in one direction in an hour. The operation of the ropeway will be 16 hours. The ropeway will be ready within 2 years. He said that the work of land acquisition, wire and pipe shifting is going on fast.

Glimpses of Kashi’s art, religion and culture will be seen at all the stations built for the ropeway.

Meanwhile, Varanasi Divisional Commissioner Kaushal Raj Sharma said that during his stay in the city on March 24, the PM will lay foundation of nine projects of Rs 1,592.49 crore.