A major road-widening project in Dal Mandi – a dense, centuries-old market near the Kashi Vishwanath Temple in Varanasi – has left hundreds of shopkeepers and residents staring at displacement.
As many as 187 buildings along the 650-metre Dal Mandi stretch have been identified for demolition as part of a ₹224-crore project to ease pilgrim access to the temple under the larger Kashi Vishwanath Corridor plan. Officials estimate that more than 1,000 shops operate from these structures, endangering the livelihood of thousands of traders.
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Seated in his dilapidated double-storey house in Aadivisheshwar locality in Varanasi, 52-year-old Sanjay Aggarwal anxiously weighs his options after learning that his rented grocery shop, run by his family for four generations, has been marked for removal. Born and raised in the narrow lanes of Kashi, Aggarwal said the shop is his family’s only source of income. “My great-grandfather came from Lahore in the 1920s to live by the Ganga. He believed dying in Kashi brings moksha (salvation). He rented the shop from the Raja of Banaras. Now, after four generations, we live in constant fear of being displaced,” he said.
