Two IITs roped in for Varanasi Smart City

varanasi-l-ptiNow, Varanasi will be re-developed into a smart city with the help of Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur and Indian Institute of Technology (Banaras Hindu University) as the two have been roped in by the Centre to chalk out a plan to renovate the holy city while preserving its heritage.

Under the HRD Ministry’s Sandhi project, the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur has been carrying out a research-based survey in the city since 2014 for conducting scientific evaluation of the city’s heritage. Professors involved in the project say that the research being carried out, and the road map thus created, will be used as a blueprint for all future smart cities in the country.

As many as 12 departments of IIT Kharagpur including architecture, civil, geology and geophysics, computer science and electronics, electrical and mechanical and the RCG School of Infrastructure Design and Management are working on the project in collaboration with Varanasi Nagar Nigam.

The city is undergoing geo-exploration wherein sub-surface data is being used to understand how the city will survive in the future. For this, 91 borewells have been dug out along with collecting 6,000 kg of sediment samples down to a depth of 100 meters.