The numbers are impressive. Besides improving the aesthetics, the project has had a spillover effect. Power theft, which costs power DISCOMS hundreds of crores each year, has been curtailed drastically in the old Kashi area. The project has also brought down the aggregate technical and commercial (AT&C) losses from 45 per cent to less than 10 per cent. Legal connections have increased substantially. Customer complaints have come down from 8.7 per cent to 0.99 per cent. There are fewer power cuts. People no longer worry about winds or rains which were excuse enough for the power department to cut supply for fear of untoward incidents.

Gupta and his team have managed to save taxpayers’ money too in the process. "The project is unique in the sense that we delivered the work at a lesser cost than estimated. We were sanctioned Rs 432 crore for the work but we are concluding it at Rs 370 crore," he said. Almost 60 per cent of the cost was borne by the government while the rest came from the local DISCOM. But it was Powergrid which had the keys to money coffers. It was the final authority in awarding contracts to various players and paying them for the work executed. This helped speed things up as the work didn’t stop on account of lack of grants.

It’s not just the money that Gupta and his team have saved. They have completed the project comfortably before the deadline. He is all praise for the cooperation his team received from the people. “People of Benaras have high tolerance. Barring one or two incidents, we got support of the people. Junction boxes would lay there for days in the open and they weren’t misplaced,” he said.

However, Gupta is upset at the way civic authorities are handling the boxes. “We have installed them. Now, it is the municipality’s job to make sure they are well kept. At many places, one can see garbage accumulating under and near the boxes. Then, stray animals try to eat from that. They may get electrocuted. People should also take care that they don’t litter near the boxes,” he complains.

How are residents of old Kashi taking to this idea of going ‘wireless’?

The IPDS team had divided old Kashi into 16 zones. It started its work from the spacious and less congested Kabir Nagar. In fact, a month after the project started, in November 2016, PM Modi dropped by Kabir Nagar during a tour of Varanasi before the crucial Uttar Pradesh polls, mainly to check the progress of his pet programme.