This Is How India Is Preparing For US Prez Obama's Visit: 'Workers Scrubbing Spit From a 15-Km Stretch Of Road On Hands And Knees, 'Rounding Up' Stray Dogs And Cattle And Ordering Everyone To Stay Inside'

Cleaners are being paid Rs.300 a day to scrub roads, stray dogs are being 'rounded up' and curfews have been imposed on locals as India prepares for the arrival of President Barack Obama.

He arrives this weekend for an unprecedented second visit by a serving U.S. president, the honoured guest of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was a Washington outcast only a year ago.

And with a visit to the Taj Mahal on the President and his wife's itinerary, authorities are furiously working to ensure it leaves a lasting impression.

Stray dogs have been rounded up, two tonnes of rubbish have been cleared from the nearby river and a lockdown has been ordered around the entire Taj Mahal complex.

Remarkably, more than 600 cleaners have also been employed, many of which have been ordered to scrub the 10mile stretch of road leading to the complex on their hands and knees.

Paid only Rs. 300 a day, the men and women have been tasked with washing away spit stains and dust.

KK Mohammed, India's former chief archaeologist, said: 'There are a lot of spit stains and such that need to be washed away. The streets need to be spick and span.'

Obama's courtship of Prime Minister Modi is evident from his three-day itinerary, the first time an incumbent president has returned to India.

While recent swings through Asia have included multiple stopovers, India is Obama's only destination this time, despite the risk of offending neighbouring Pakistan.

'There's no question this is a defining time in the US-India relationship,' US Ambassador Richard Verma said in New Delhi. 'Things not only feel different, they are different.'

Modi's election in May 2014 was a potential headache for the US, which had blacklisted the Hindu nationalist for more than a decade after deadly communal riots in Gujarat when he was state chief minister.

He was only brought in from the cold last February when Verma's predecessor travelled to Gujarat once it appeared Modi was likely to end the centre-left Congress party's 10-year rule.

Apart from cleaning white lines on the roads, authorities have been rounding up stray dogs, clearing cows from the streets, and have ordered a lockdown around the complex.

Inside the Taj complex, a dozen barefoot women were busy trimming lawn edges with trowels.

"Obama, Obama," one lady, who has worked at the Taj for more than two decades and earns 100 rupees a day, said with a grin.

Some 3,000 police are on duty and will conduct boat patrols of the river, said Agra police senior superintendent Rajesh Modak.

Tourists will be turned away while the Obamas are touring the Taj, built by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan as a tomb for his beloved empress who died during childbirth in 1631.

Locals teeming the alleys around the Taj -- which took 20,000 labourers  and 16 years to build -- said they have been ordered to stay indoors.

"You can't go outside, you can't go onto the roof, you can't go outside to the bathroom -- it's like a curfew," grumbled Anil Kumar Sonkar, who runs a sweet shop a stone's throw from the Taj.


"We should be open for business and Obama should be allowed to come and sample my world-famous petha," said Sonkar of the sweet made from sugar and pumpkin.