Ramps for the rising river: 35 ghats to stay walkable when the Ganga climbs

Anyone who has walked the riverfront in monsoon knows the pattern. The Ganga rises, the connecting steps between one ghat and the next go under water, and the long continuous promenade briefly becomes a string of separate landings — to get from one to the other you climb up into the lanes and come back down again. A civil works project now under way is aimed squarely at that annual inconvenience. Platforms and ramps are being built at 35 of the city's 84 ghats at a cost of about ₹41.25 crore, with the work being executed by Uttar Pradesh Projects Corporation Limited. Mirghat, Prabhu Ghat, Man Mandir Ghat, Rajendra Prasad Ghat, Man Mahal Ghat, Tripura Bhairavi Ghat, Lal Ghat, Gaya Ghat, Raj Ghat, Rana Mahal Ghat and Hanuman Ghat are among those named. The idea is straightforward: keep a walkable link between neighbouring ghats even when the water is high, so that darshan, aarti and the everyday business of the riverfront do not have to detour through the city each time the river swells. For visitors, it should mean easier movement along the central and northern stretches in the weeks when the water is up. For the boatmen, priests, flower-sellers and families who work these steps every day, it is the sort of unglamorous improvement that quietly changes a whole season.

Compiled by HelloBanaras from public sources: Amar Ujala