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A social impact study of urban interventions at Varanasi Part of Academic Dissertation
Varanasi being one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities of India, with its rich cultural heritage attracts a large sum of visitors both from the country and abroad to its land. The major part of these visitors are pilgrims who come to visit the world famous shrine of Kashi Vishwanath Temple and the riverfront ghats to take holy dip in river Ganges. With the increase in the tourism due to transportation technology the city is coping with the problems to cater to such large population of its citizen as well as the tourists. Considering the number of visitors, the growing needs of its citizen and to meet the city up to international standards, various projects under Smart City Mission has been started. Amongst its various projects, ―Kashi Vishwanath Temple Corridor Project‖ has been the focal point of all the major developments in the city which involves urban regeneration around the holy shrine. The project intends to provide better pilgrim experiences in the area and thus has placed pressure on the government to expand Temple‘s infrastructure capacity. Such emphasis on tourism planning and development has had significant implications on the residents of the area, many of whom have been displaced by corridor developments. This research focuses on the individuals or communities affected and displaced in the process of redevelopment around a holy shrine and to study the social impact that the intervention has created on the communities that lived as a whole and the individuals who make up that community by means of onsite interviews with the locals and officials as wells as understanding the historical context of the site in relation to the different phases of development that took place.
1.1 Research Questions and Objectives The Objectives of the research are listed below:
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