NEW DELHI: With Prime Minister Narendra Modi asking his ministers to prepare a list of key tasks they will take up as priorities in the first 100 days of the new government’s tenure, a unique experiment aimed at cleaning up and maintaining Varanasi’s most prestigious ghats is taking shape at Delhi’s Transport Bhawan, which houses the tourism ministry.A dozen ghats in the city, also the prime minister’s constituency, have been selected for the trial in which India’s top companies will ‘adopt’ the sites for their cleaning and maintenance. This will include fixing damaged sections, particularly at the ghats most frequented by foreign tourists.Tourism Minister Sripad Yesso Naik told ET the idea is to engage leading private companies in the ghat cleanup as part of their corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities. "They will look after the cleaning up and maintenance of a particular ghat for which they have taken responsibility and in exchange we may consider giving them advertising space on the ghat itself. This will be done in coordination with the Varanasi Municipal Corporation.The details of this are being presently worked out and should be finalised by the time we ready our plan of action for the first 100 days," Naik said.According to officials, the ghats that will be included in the trial are Dashashwamedh, Rajendra Prasad, Shitla, Kedar, Man Mandir, Tripurbhairavi, Vijaynagaram, Rana, Chausatti, Munshi, Ahilyabai and Darbhanga. Dashashwamedh is among the most frequented ghats due to its proximity to the Kashi Vishwanath temple and for famed Ganga aarti every evening. Among those that have expressed interest, according to senior officials, are the Taj and Lalit hotel groups.While the Tata-run Taj group confirmed its interest in the initiative, Lalit did not respond to queries. Companies will adopt a ghat after signing an MoU with the municipal corporation, which will act as coordinator while the ministry will function as facilitator, said Girish Shankar, additional secretary, tourism. He denied this would amount to "outsourcing" of the corporation’s duties, giving an assurance that the local body would continue to oversee the overall upkeep. The finer details of the plan are still being decided.The Varanasi Municipal Corporation has been getting offers from companies along these lines for some time now but nothing had worked out for one reason or another, said mayor Ram Gopal Mohle. What matters now will be the fine print and the manner of execution."Some officials from GAIL met me recently with an offer of cleaning and maintaining the ghats. We are considering all ideas, and remain open to those which emphasise co-ordinating with us (rather than bypassing the corporation) and making the agenda of a clean Ganga and ghats a reality. I have myself prepared a vision document for Varanasi and will present it to the Prime Minister on or after June 3. I am optimistic that some of these ideas… will work for us," Mohle said.Naik clarified that the experiment is in addition to the allocation of about Rs 18 crore for upgrading tourism infrastructure at the ghats. "The money was stuck during the previous government, but I have now sanctioned it and soon work on upgrading infrastructure will start," he said.Ministry officials said the money is being transferred to Varanasi as central finance assistance given under the ‘Project and infrastructure development of destinations and circuits’ scheme. Basic facilities to be provided include floating jetties, toilets, changing rooms and decentralised drinking water facilities. Local infrastructure upgradation will also be undertaken, including the cladding of ghats, underground cabling—doing away with exposed wires dangling in the open—and high mast light systems for better visibility. This is being done keeping in view the increasing number of tourists flocking to the city, officials said.