Varanasi: The Varanasi Municipal Corporation is now awaiting the next visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to his parliamentary constituency to begin work on its state-of-the-art headquarters, with an investment of Rs 93 crore.After the foundation laying by PM Modi, the construction will be completed in 15 months. The exterior design of the Rs 97 crore building is based on the Kashi and Ganga theme, resembling a Shivling. With the completion of this building, the wait for elected corporators and the mayor for a house to conduct sessions of the elected local body will also end. The new building’s first floor will feature a grand assembly hall for the civic body’s proceedings, seating 180 councillors and equipped with modern facilities for democratic discussions. Currently, the municipal corporation’s house operates from a temporary setup at Town Hall, after its old building was demolished to make way for the Rudraksh International Convention Centre, built with Japan International Cooperation Agency’s help in 2018.With the awarding of the contract to a company for the construction of the building by the executing agency, the Construction & Design Section of UP Jal Nigam, through the tender process, the work of evacuating identified dilapidated buildings in the rear portion of the existing headquarters will start in one to two days, said mayor Ashok Tiwari.“The foundation of the building will be laid by PM Modi whenever he visits his parliamentary constituency next time, as this comprehensive transformation of the civic body is taking place as per his vision and chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s firm resolve,” Tiwari said.Once evacuated, the demolition of dilapidated buildings will make space for the construction of the state-of-the-art building. The mayor announced that the project will start with a ground plus 4-storey building. The total built-up area will be 21,858.01 square metres. It will be expanded to seven storeys (G+7) in the future.The ground floor is designed to provide all basic facilities to the general public under one roof. Three separate sections are proposed for a police station, bank, post office, PRO office, data centre, computer cell, canteen, and birth-death registration room. The first section includes a record room, cash counter, vault room, meeting room, green room, JCO room, and toilets; the second section has a lift, service area, toilets, and union hall; and the third section has a police station, bank/post office, canteen, server room, birth/death registration room, record room, tax collection room, etc. Offices of different departments, for enhanced administrative efficiency, will be systematically distributed across the upper floors. The second floor will have special chambers for corporators and VVIP rooms.With the shifting of all offices to the new building after its completion, the existing offices in the front portion of the corporation’s headquarters will be allotted to Jal-Kal, which is currently operating at Kamaksha.
