Press Information Bureau
Government of India
Ministry of Culture
20-January-2019 16:01 IST
PBD 2019: Guests Start Arriving at Kashi
PIB Varanasi. The NRI guests from all over the world have started arriving since 19th January to be the part of PBD 2019 at Varanasi. Upon arrival, they are being welcomed in traditional ways by kids of various schools at Lal Bahadur Shastri International Airport, Babatpur. Most of those who reached Kashi had their first priority to make a darshan of Baba Vishwanath Temple. Many guests from Indonesia, Malasiya, Mauritius, USA, UK and other countries were seen spiritually mesmerized when they reached Kashi Nagari and specially when they reached to bow with obeisance before Baba Bholenath at world famous Kashi Vishwanath Temple.
Vice chairman of Varanasi Development Authority- VDA Rajesh Kumar, the nodal officer looking after stay arrangements of PBD guests, told that contrary to the common perception, most of the guests who registered for PBD 2019 are from USA and not from Mauritius and other such countries where Indians had migrated centuries ago. He further apprised that there are three types of stay arrangements for the PBD guests. First is ‘Shri Baleshwar Agrawal Prawasi Nagar’ at Aidhey village popularly known as the ‘Tent City’ where 1480 guests are being accommodated. The second is the blocked hotel rooms of Varanasi where around five thousand guests will get standard accommodation and the third is ‘ Kashi Atithya Yojna’ under which nearly 400 guests will reside with the citizens of Kashi in their homes.
Authorities related with PBD Varanasi told that there are over 5800 NRI guests from over 125 countries who got them registered for PBD participation. Meanwhile, in order to make this event more indulging and enriching, MEA has created a special Twitter handle “# MyPBDMoment” and “#PravasiAtVaranasi”. These are then shared on “#PBDConvention”, the official Twitter handle of MEA, for this mega event.
In the run up to PBD-2019, Minister of State for Information & Broadcasting(i/c) Col.Rajyavardhan Rathore will inaugurate an Exhibition titled “Ek Bharat: Swachha Aur Saksham Bharat- Bapu aur Patel ke Sapnon Ka Bharat,” at 7-30 PM on 20th January, Sunday at BHU Campus, opposite Science Hostel, Behind Shiv Mandir Varanasi.
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