The total length of the two highways is 34 kilometers and have been constructed at a cost of around Rs. 1572 crore. An official release said, the 16.55 kilometer Varanasi Ring Road Phase-I has been completed at a cost of over Rs. 759 crore, while 17.25 kilometer Babatpur-Varanasi road was constructed at a cost of over Rs. 812 crore.
The Babatpur Airport highway will link Varanasi to the airport and go on to Jaunpur, Sultanpur and Lucknow. With a flyover at Harhua and an road over bridge at Tarna, it will reduce the travel time from Varanasi to the airport.
This will prove a big relief to the people of Varanasi and to tourists and other visitors to the city. These projects will also provide increased employment opportunities, development of small and medium industries and give a boost to economic development in the area.
Earlier in the day, Prime Minister dedicated to the nation an inland waterways terminal on river Ganga in Varanasi. This is the first of the four multi modal terminals being constructed on NW-I (River Ganga) as part of the World Bank aided Jal Marg Vikas project of the Inland Waterways Authority of India.
The other three terminals are under construction at Sahibganj, Haldia and Gazipur. The project would enable commercial navigation of vessels with capacity of 1500-2,000 DWT on river Ganga.
Prime Minister also received the country’s first container consignment (post independence) to be sent on an inland waterways vessel. This consignment containing cargo of the food and beverage company Pepsico set sail from Kolkata in the last week of October.