Dalmandi widening: After a month, bulldozers roll in amid tight security

Varanasi: The PWD restarted demolition of purchased buildings for the Dalmandi road widening project on Sunday, over a month after it was halted, with tight security in place.A joint team of PWD, district administration, and police arrived in Dalmandi with a list of 15 buildings left from the earlier drive due to Ramzan and 30 newly purchased ones, to resume demolition.PWD executive engineer KK Singh said 25 houses were fully demolished and 15 partially when work stopped in February. Before Sunday's restart, 30 more buildings were purchased. The total number of purchased buildings is now 47, with 176 shareholders paid. Over Rs 32 crore has been paid to those who sold their buildings for the project, Singh said. The project's target is 187 buildings. So far, 47 have been purchased, he said, adding that papers for another 50 have been submitted by the owners.ACP (Dashaswamedh) Atul Anjan Tripathi said that apart from police and PAC jawans, central paramilitary forces had also been deployed in and around Dalmandi, while drones monitored the area. The cops kept announcing, warning people gathered to watch the demolition to stay back, as bulldozers razed buildings and cleared debris.To improve access to Kashi Vishwanath Dham's gate-4 from the Naisadak point on the Lahurabir-Godowlia road, and to shift load from other roads, especially the Maidagin-Godowlia route, the project of Rs 224 crore was launched to convert the 650 metre Dalmandi road into a 17.4 metre-wide road by purchasing or acquiring a total of 187 buildings and razing them.