Two-lane roads linking Kashi to Bhadohi, Chandauli to be widened

VARANASI: The two-lane roads linking Bhadohi and Chandauli with Varanasi will now be converted into four-lane and six-lane roads. Bhadohi and Chandauli were separated from Varanasi in 1994 and 1997, respectively.
The PWD will execute these projects at a cost of Rs 273 crores and Rs 416 crores, respectively.
Talking to TOI on Monday, divisional commissioner Deepak Agrawal said, “The two projects of converting two-lane Varanasi-Gopiganj road via Bhadohi into four-lane with a budget of Rs 273.12 crores and Mohansarai-Chakia crossing road in Chandauli district via Varanasi (Cantonment) railway station and DDU Nagar (Mughalsarai) into six-lane road with an investment of Rs 416 crores, have been approved by the state government and will be executed by PWD.”
As per the estimate of PWD, total cost of the Varanasi-Bhadohi road four-lane conversion has been estimated as Rs 273.12 crores, including Rs 162.93 crores for road construction, Rs 100.08 crores for land acquisition, Rs 2.37 crores for tree cutting, Rs 6.22 crores on shifting of poles and transformers and Rs 1.50 crore on shifting of religious structures.
“The existing 32-km Varanasi-Gopiganj road via Bhadohi has been connected with ring-road phase-II,” said the commissioner adding, consignments of carpets for export go to airports and seaports of Kolkata, Mumbai and Delhi via Varanasi. Apart from this, traffic of passenger vehicles is also very heavy on this two-lane road. The four-lane conversion of this road will ease traffic on this road, which has many densely populated areas along it.
The Mohansarai-Varanasi (Cantt) railway station-DDU Nagar-Chakia crossing road six-lane will be a project of Rs 416.88 crores, including Rs 308.49 crores on road construction, Rs 66.37 crores on land acquisition, Rs 10.48 crores on tree cutting and re-plantation, Rs 2.34 crores on water line shifting, Rs 27.68 crores on electric poles and transformers shifting and Rs 1.50 crores on religious structure shifting.
The Mohansarai-Chakia crossing road via Varanasi railway station and DDU Nagar, is also known as old-GT Road.
He said that there is a very heavy load on this 54.885 km road, which is linked with BHU, DLW, Sarnath, Chandauli, Azamgarh, Ghazipur and other highways at different points. Traffic jams are faced on this road for almost 24 hours. More problems are faced during Shrawan months when traffic is diverted in view of Kanwariya movement, he said adding, arrival of service lanes with six-lane roads on this route will not only end all these problems, but also solve the problem of waterlogging during the rainy season.