Last night, meeting the city's intelligentsia over dinner, the Prime Minister gave an assurance to them that the sanctity (garima) of Varanasi would be kept intact and that "Kashi would be transformed into a modern city while retaining its traditional flavour, as the world has seen in London and something we had attempted with success in quake-hit Bhuj when I was the Chief Minister of Gujarat".
He also shared a number of plans for the city's modernisation which included battery-operated cars as modes of public transport, door-to-door garbage collection and a "Palace on Wheels" train running from Delhi to Varanasi via Ayodhya and Prayag (Allahabad).
