Spain comes to the aid of Varanasi

Varanasi, Feb 17(ANI): Varanasi could be the country's first World Heritage City.

Spanish experts, who converted Bilbao, once branded as the 'ugliest city' into a popular tourist destination, have come forward to share their secrets with Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) to conserve the heritage monuments here and develop a world class infrastructure for the holy town

To this end, the Government of Spain recently signed an agreement with INTACH to conserve the monuments of Varanasi.

Under the project, around 200 monuments, river banks that form a part of the heritage city, Varanasi will be conserved.

"We have been making efforts to conserve the monuments of Varanasi that form the heritage city for the past four to five years. We have appointed Heritage INTACH as the consultants. They are surveying the monuments of Varanasi," said R P Goswami, Vice Chairman, Varanasi Developmentuthority.

Tourists visiting Varanasi are all praise for the city, which is revered asne of the holiest cities by the Hindus in India

"Varanasi is a very nice city, especially the Ganga. The sunrise is really nice," said Jorish, a tourist from Vienna.

Situated on the banks of river Ganges, Varanasi attracts a bulk of foreigners because of its temples, traditionally embroidered silk saris and a quintessential oriental charm.

Tourists coming to Varanasi for spiritual enlightenment, perform rituals on the river banks known as ghats.

There are 84 ghats in Varanasi, which are visited by a large number of tourists, both domestic and foreign.

Apart from being a huge tourist destination, Varanasi is visited by several international students and scholars to study Indian culture and religion. By Girish Kumar Dubey (ANI)