Temple road-widening project puts livelihoods in peril

A large road-widening task successful Dal Mandi – a dense, centuries-old marketplace adjacent the Kashi Vishwanath Temple successful Varanasi – has near hundreds of shopkeepers and residents staring astatine displacement.

As galore arsenic 187 buildings on the 650-metre Dal Mandi agelong person been identified for demolition arsenic portion of a ₹224-crore task to easiness pilgrim entree to the temple nether the larger Kashi Vishwanath Corridor plan. Officials estimation that much than 1,000 shops run from these structures, endangering the livelihood of thousands of traders.

Seated successful his dilapidated double-storey location successful Aadivisheshwar locality successful Varanasi, 52-year-old Sanjay Aggarwal anxiously weighs his options aft learning that his rented market shop, tally by his household for 4 generations, has been marked for removal. Born and raised successful the constrictive lanes of Kashi, Aggarwal said the store is his family’s lone root of income. “My great-grandfather came from Lahore successful the 1920s to unrecorded by the Ganga. He believed dying successful Kashi brings moksha (salvation). He rented the store from the Raja of Banaras. Now, aft 4 generations, we unrecorded successful changeless fearfulness of being displaced,” helium said.

Dal Mandi has agelong been a bustling wholesale and retail hub dealing successful clothing, groceries, fabrics, household goods and handicrafts. The marketplace serves customers from eastbound Uttar Pradesh and occidental Bihar and offers affordable goods nether 1 roof.

Following surveys, notices were served to spot owners successful October 2025, with the authorities offering compensation astatine doubly the ellipse complaint of ₹44,000 per quadrate metre. “The marketplace terms is astatine slightest 4 times what they are offering. But the contented is with the store owners who are connected rent. Where volition we go? Each gathering houses 5 to 7 shops. At slightest 1,000 shops whitethorn beryllium permanently shut. Thousands volition beryllium unemployed,” Aggarwal said.

Losing taste legacy

Farhan Khan, a third-generation mobile accessories trader whose store has been spared, said helium is pained to spot galore of his adjacent friends and acquaintances losing their livelihoods successful the project. “The marketplace represents our identity. Losing these shops signifies much than a specified fiscal ruin. It means losing a taste bequest built implicit generations,” helium said.

“These streets are filled with memories. Traditions are being erased for the involvement of a road. We are not simply defending our shops but our precise existence,” Khan added.

The demolition thrust has created panic. Last week, a gathering proprietor acceptable occurrence to his spot arsenic officials moved successful to raze structures that had received notices 15 days earlier. Political parties person staged protests and immoderate person questioned wherefore the thrust was not paused during Ramzan arsenic the country is populated by a immense bulk of Muslims.

Aggarwal’s mother, Rita Aggarwal, says constabulary cautioned her lad aft his comments appeared prominently successful the media. The household present plans to displacement the market store to the crushed level of their residence. “But present the income volition driblet by 75% owed to reduced footfall. Only dedicated customers volition come,” the lad said, adding that the mean rent for a 100 square-foot store present exceeds ₹20,000 per month.

‘It’s a catastrophe’

For Imran Ali, 44, his location and covering store look demolition. “We volition beryllium virtually connected the road. It is not conscionable money; it is our birthplace. Six generations person lived here,” helium said. Anticipating closure, Ali has enrolled his woman successful a B.Ed. people to unafraid an alternate income and asked his 2 employees to look for different jobs. “At slightest she volition make income earlier I americium capable to look for economical avenues. It is simply a catastrophe for us,” Ali said.

He said that his begetter suffered a changeable aft the demolition announcement, which doctors linked to affectional distress. “It takes a twelvemonth to physique a house. A location takes generations,” Ali said.

The State authorities approved the connection successful 2023-24 to widen the Dal Mandi-Chowk constabulary presumption roadworthy to facilitate nonstop entree from Naisadak to Gate No. 4 of the temple. The 650-metre agelong volition person an expanded 17.4-metre transition with 3.2-metre-wide footpaths connected some sides and underground utilities.

The Public Works Department affixed notices to 187 buildings, seeking ownership documents to finalise compensation done negotiation. Authorities warned that if negotiations fail, ceremonial onshore acquisition would follow. Demolitions began successful January this year, creating an uproar.

Some residents said that an alternate 200-metre way from Kodai ki Chowki to Dashashwamedh constabulary station, which they accidental would person affected less buildings, was ignored contempt suggestions during the Social Impact Assessment (SIA), a mandatory process nether onshore acquisition law. “The basal thought down SIA is to mitigate societal unrest, take the shortest route, code challenges of onshore acquisition and accelerate the implementation of improvement projects. But nary of that was followed. The agelong way with the bulk Muslim colonisation was chosen for the process,” claimed Aggarwal.

‘Selective targeting’

Congress person Shahnawaz Alam called the thrust “selective targeting”. “It is good known that the bulk of buildings, store owners and residents present are Muslims. The superior nonsubjective of the task is to trouble, deprive them. It is incorrect arsenic it volition effect successful economical marginalisation, interruption assemblage operation and volition pb to profound intelligence distress for hundreds,” Alam said.

Local BJP municipal councillor Indresh Kumar Singh defends the project, saying galore structures are unsafe oregon encroach upon the road. “The country has faulty wiring that prevents exigency access. The task volition alteration the cramped spaces into a functional, safe, and economically productive area, and easiness pilgrim movement,” helium said.

Alam responds by saying that lakhs of buildings successful Varanasi are akin to structures successful Dal Mandi. “Unorganised layouts are a world of Kashi arsenic it is 1 of the aged cities successful quality history. People from acold and wide travel present to attain salvation and for worship. Why people a densely populated country and instrumentality distant the livelihood of thousands?” helium said.

Edited by: Mehraj Bhat