Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be formally inaugurating a project close to his heart, the Homi Bhabha Cancer Hospital in Varanasi to be run by the Tata Memorial Trust, during a two-day visit to his parliamentary constituency on July 14-15.
This is Tata Memorial Trust’s first such big cancer treatment centre in this region to cater to the population of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar after Modi had requested the Trust to take over an existing Railway Cancer Institute and refurbish it with the latest machines and equipment.
Nearly Rs 100 crore have been spent on this new 180-bed facility which has started working lately even as the PM will be dedicating it to the people of the region during his upcoming visit. “PM’s vision is to make Varanasi a big centre for cancer treatment after Mumbai so that cancer patients from UP and Bihar do not have to travel all the way to Mumbai,” a government official told ET.
Another big cancer treatment facility is coming up in Varanasi inside the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) campus, called the Mahamana Pt Madan Mohan Malviya Cancer Centre, which will be a 350-bed hospital being built at a cost of Rs 500 crore and which will be completed by 2019.
The Tata Memorial Trust will run that facility as well and the PM will be reviewing the progress of this project during his visit to Varanasi. The PM will also address a public meeting in Varanasi on July 15, officials told ET. He will be going to Varanasi on July 14, straight from Azamgarh where he would be laying the foundation stone of the country’s biggest expressway, the Purvanchal Expressway.
Another major project whose work would begin during Modi’s visit will be the renovation of 26 major bathing ghats on the Ganga under the Nanami Ganga programme at a cost of almost Rs 12 crore.
The PM would also flag off work at another religious project, which is the widening and improvement of the ‘Panch Koshi Parikrama Marg’ for almost Rs 100 crore — this is an 80-km long ancient route in Varanasi that starts and ends at the famous Manikarna Ghat after pilgrims visit five religious destinations over as many days on foot.
UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath during his recent visit to Varanasi had walked briefly on Panch Koshi Parikrama Marg for review.
