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Varanasi, or Banaras as it was known earlier, is considered ‘India’s eternal city’, given its sacred status in Hinduism. One of the oldest continually inhabited cities of the world, time itself used to stand still in its maze of narrow lanes, streets and alleyways.
Writer and journalist Suresh Pratap Singh remembers and reminisces about the Banaras of old, a time when tongas (horse-drawn carts) abounded in the city.
“There used to be 40-50 pedal rickshaws and tongas at every intersection. There was a tonga stand at the intersection in Godowlia, Varanasi’s most crowded and congested area,” Singh told Down To Earth (DTE).
But even as time has passed, Varanasi’s appeal as a sacred location remains timeless. In fact, new developments have only strengthened the pull of the city for religious devotees.
“Ever since the Kashi Vishwanath temple corridor has been built, lakhs of visitors have been visiting the city,” Anjani Kumar Rai, assistant police commissioner (traffic), Varanasi, told DTE.
Sandeep Srivastava, public relations officer of Varanasi Nagar Nigam, agreed. “After the construction of the corridor in Kashi, its floating population has increased rapidly, reaching millions. After the Covid-19 pandemic, tourism has increased rapidly here,” he told DTE.
“According to an analysis done by the tourism department on the basis of footage from the Kashi Vishwanath temple, there is a floating population of 500,000-600,000 in Varanasi every day. The city’s population itself is between 2.2 million-2.5 million. Sometimes during festivals like Mahashivratri or Diwali, this number reaches millions,” added Srivastava.
“Every day, 100,000-150,000 tourists visit Varanasi. Many are from neighbouring districts who troop into the city for darshan (religious visit),” according to Rai.
Data from the tourism department paints a worrying picture. Some 25.6 million tourists visited Varanasi between January and March in 2024. In the first three months of this year, this number increased to 114.6 million.
The number of domestic tourists in Varanasi in the first three months (January-March) of 2025 increased by 77.59 per cent or 88.9 million, compared to last year.
At the same time, the number of foreign tourists increased by 34 per cent. The number of foreign tourists, which was 98,961 in 2024, increased to 150,000 in the first three months of 2025. That is, there was an increase of more than 50 per cent in just three months.
But even as the population has increased, no system to manage traffic has been thought of, due to which the city is now facing difficulties, according to Singh.
This is also due to the fact that the modes of transport that old Banaras relied upon, are long gone.
The tonga stand in Godowlia that Singh referred to, has been demolished and a motorcycle stand has been made where Rs 20 is charged per hour. Tongas have completely disappeared from the city, said Singh.
Pedal rickshaws have also gradually disappeared. The number of rickshaws left is negligible now as compared to earlier, he added.
But the devotees and tourists continue to come. And Varanasi is in the midst of a mobility crisis.
“Earlier, there used to be no traffic jams at Assi, Raj Ghat, Rath Yatra and Manduadih. But that has changed in the last five-six years,” Harishchandra, originally from Mirzapur in eastern Uttar Pradesh, told DTE. He has been living in Banaras for the past 13 years.
How many vehicles ply on the roads in Varanasi currently? “It is difficult to tell the exact number. But there are a lot of vehicles in the city at the moment. Varanasi has been an old business centre. Like every city, private vehicles have also increased rapidly here. But we try our best to ensure that traffic runs smoothly in Varanasi,” according to Rai.
According to Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways data, the number of registered motor vehicles in Varanasi was 10,657 units in April 2025. This number was 9,346 units in March 2025. The average from January 2006 to April 2025 was 5,494.500 units. This figure reached an all-time high of 15,884 units in November 2024, while the lowest number was recorded at 312 units in May 2020.
Currently, a total of 15,67,116 vehicles are registered in Varanasi on the VAHAN portal. Some 48,690 vehicles have been registered in the city in the first six months of 2025 alone, of which the number of motorcycles/scooters is 35,226. Last year, 72,030 motorcycles/scooters were registered. This number was 64,519 in 2023 and 60,119 in 2022.
In 2024, 5,752 e-rickshaws were registered in Varanasi. This number was 7,238 in 2023, 4,026 in 2022, whereas in 2025, till June 12, this number is 223.
Given the growth in population and vehicle numbers, daily commuting in Varanasi is a logistical nightmare.
Traffic snarls are commonplace in the city’s main intersections including Godowlia, Maidagin, Lohrabig, Beniyabagh, Chowka Ghat and Kachhari.
Besides being a sacred city, Varanasi is also a bustling commercial centre, the hub of eastern Uttar Pradesh or the Purvanchal region. Many of its streets, lanes and alleyways are home to wholesale markets.
“Godowlia, Gyanvapi, the Kalbhairav Temple, Sankatmochan Temple, Durga Ji Temple are home to some commercial establishments. Galla Mandi is the biggest grain market of Purvanchal. Saptasagar is a medicine market while Kashipur is a spice market. There are five-six universities and many hospitals in Varanasi. So, it is natural for the crowd to increase,” said Srivastava.
According to Suresh Pratap Singh, there are three or four routes to reach the Godowlia intersection. But on any of these routes, you will be dropped 500 metres to 1.5 kilometres (km) before the crossing. Young people can walk to the temple and ghats from here, but elderly people face a lot of inconvenience.
The number of vehicles that ply inside is not sufficient. The local residents of this area face a lot of inconvenience due to the crowds while going to hospitals and schools. The difficulties increase further at times when pregnant women are being rushed to hospital for their deliveries.
DTE itself got to experience the truth of Singh’s words. This correspondent caught an auto rickshaw from Cantt Chauraha (crossroads). Her destination was Godowlia. The auto driver dropped this reporter at Nai Sadak Chauraha, from where she walked about 1.5 km to reach Aarti Ghat. The five km journey from Cantt to Godowlia Ghat took 40-45 minutes. At around 7 o’clock in the evening, at the time of the Aarti (prayer ritual), the crowd of pedestrians was so huge that it was difficult to walk in it.
Zubair Khan Bagi is the president of the Uttar Pradesh Drivers Forum with which around 1,300 drivers of the city are associated.
“The city changed after the Covid-19 lockdown. People’s businesses closed. So, they financed auto- or e-rickshaws to run their families, due to which the number of vehicles increased. Zone-wise driving has been allowed from September 2024. This rule has further increased difficulties. On paper, they have 52 parking spaces in 24 places. But on the ground, the reality is different. Instead of a ‘Smart city’, it has now become a troubled city,” Bagi told DTE.
He added that while there is no parking space left in Varanasi, lakhs of rupees are collected in the name of parking every day. There is no intersection in the city where collection of money is not done. “In Varanasi, a challan (invoice) of Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000 is issued on a vehicle every month. Every intersection has been closed. There is no parking, no rules and no system in place.”
The authorities in Varanasi say they are doing their best to tackle the mobility crisis. Take parking, for instance, which Bagi alluded to. “There are limited resources inside the city, so it is not possible to build new parking lots here. Still, the government and municipal corporation have built five to six parking lots, including some underground ones. Apart from this, when crowds increase, schools and colleges authorise and make parking lots for some time,” said Rai.
The Varanasi Nagar Nigam, along with the Varanasi Development Authority, has installed traffic lights at signals in various locations across the city.
The area around the Kashi Vishwanath temple corridor has been declared a ‘No vehicle’ zone, given the increasing crowd strength. “Four-wheelers and passenger vehicles are not allowed there. All vehicles are stopped one-and-a-half kilometre before the corridor. From here, the temple administration runs some vehicles or people go by electronic vehicles. Most people go on foot through the narrow streets,” Rai told DTE.
A crisis arose during the Maha Kumbh Mela earlier this year when people from neighbouring districts coming for darshan caused a dramatic increase in vehicles entering the city. The authorities then hit upon a solution. Big vehicles were stopped outside Varanasi and parked in some 22-23 parking lots. “People entered the city in small vehicles. The arrangement worked. There was no traffic snarl anywhere in Varanasi during the Maha Kumbh Mela,” Rai said.
On arrangements to avoid traffic jams in Varanasi, Rai noted, “Buses with devotees are stopped at the stand built outside the city. These people travel in small vehicles inside the city. Routes for four-wheelers have been restricted at various places in Varanasi. The local people here know which routes are to be taken and the ones that are prohibited for vehicles. Private vehicles are parked in the parking lot and visitors are suggested to use public transport or two-wheelers.”
Suresh Pratap Singh suggests that mini buses should be started in Varanasi. “If these mini buses are run every 10 minutes, one in the inner circle and one in the outer one, the problems of passengers will ease.”
Varanasi, along with Venice (Italy) and Detroit (US), has been selected by the Toyota Mobility Foundation for its project to study and offer crowd management solutions. Varanasi is the only city in Asia to be selected for the programme.
The Toyota Mobility Foundation has also selected 10 top international companies to discuss city flows, data platforms, human-centered design, public infrastructure, real-time connectivity, security, real-time monitoring, spatial analysis, site security, smarter and more efficient environment and exchange of information as part of the project.
The 10 companies selected to work on Varanasi’s traffic management include Citydata Inc., Factal Analytics Limited, Grammatics, Arcadish, Intpixel Labs Pvt. Ltd., Theorem Consulting Private Limited, SmartWiz Limited, Steer Davies & Gleave Limited, The Urbaniser and Tiami Networks.
The Foundation will spend $3 million (about Rs 26 crore) on Varanasi under the first phase of the project.
On the other hand, India’s first urban public transport ropeway is being built in Varanasi. Three of its five stations are almost ready. Trial runs are going to start soon. It is claimed that this ropeway will reduce the traffic jams in the city to a great extent.
“At present, a ropeway is being built from the railway station cantonment to the Kashi Vishwanath temple. The prime minister will inaugurate it soon, which will make it very easy for passengers to travel. A survey is also being conducted by the government on how to reduce the number of private vehicles in the city and encourage people to use public transport as well as electric vehicles as much as possible,” said Rai.
Ravi Shekhar, who lives in Shivaji Nagar Colony in Varanasi’s Mahmoorganj, has been running the ‘Green Journeys’ campaign for the past few years. It intends to make mobility an important issue in states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand. ‘Green Journeys’ advocates clean, energy-based public transport with last-mile connectivity.
“Varanasi is not a city where people go out for work at 10 in the morning and return home at 6 in the evening. But the changes that have happened in the last 10-15 years have made this city very different. Fifteen years ago, even if you did not have any personal means of transport, you would not have regretted it as there were many types of vehicles on every road. This is a city that was heavily dependent on three-wheelers, whether they were pedal rickshaws or auto rickshaws. The city was dependent on these two modes for a very long time and all the needs of people’s movement were fulfilled by them,” said Shekhar.
He further said, “If you look at the markets here, their design and structure has always been such that people can walk or ride a bicycle. The Dalmandi market adjacent to the Nai Sadak market, the Chowk market, the market around Kashi Vishwanath — all these areas used to be full of people walking and riding bicycles. There was a time when travelling here by rickshaw was a luxury in itself.”
However, in the last 10-15 years the nature of pilgrimage in the city has changed and it has shifted towards tourism.
“Public transport has not developed in the city in the last several decades. The city buses that used to run within the city have gradually stopped. Slowly, two-wheelers started increasing. Walking three-four kilometres in Varanasi may now take two hours, whereas it took 15-20 minutes earlier. If we can reach in this time, it is a big thing,” said Shekhar.
According to him, the city has been converted from a pilgrimage to a tourist destination in the last 10 years. In the process though, the government forgot to provide means to transport people from one place to another.
This article is part of our series on how India moves, which looks at the relationship between air quality and human mobility in cities and towns.