Guwahati: Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma here on Thursday said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate and lay foundation stones of projects worth around Rs 18,000 crore during his two-day visit to Assam starting on Friday.
Informing that the Prime Minister will, for the first time, visit UNESCO heritage site Kaziranga National Park and undertake a safari, Mr Sarma told reporters, “The PM will inaugurate and lay the foundation stones of a mix of state and central projects worth around Rs 18,000 crore.”
Pointing out that on February 4, the prime minister had launched infrastructure projects worth Rs 11,600 crore Mr Sarma said that he is also scheduled to lay the foundation stone of a Rs 27,000-crore semiconductor plant of the Tata Group on March 13.
Giving details of his tour programme, Mr Sarma said that the Prime Minister will arrive in Assam on Friday afternoon and will spend the night at the Kohora range of Kaziranga National Park. “He is scheduled to land at Tezpur airport at 4 pm and reach Kaziranga by a chopper. Around 5.30 am on Saturday, he will enter the park and will stay there for around two hours,” said Mr Sarma. The Assam government has kept both jeep and elephant safaris ready for Mr Modi, who will enjoy any of the rides or both, he added.
“This will be the first visit of Mr Modi to the world heritage site. And I believe he must be the first prime minister to stay overnight at Kaziranga, but I have to check the records,” Mr Sarma said. After this, the PM will depart for Arunachal Pradesh, where he will attend two functions before returning to Assam's Jorhat district, he added.
“After landing at Hollongapar helipad, he will inaugurate the 125-foot tall statue of Ahom general Lachit Borphukan. The statue, constructed by Ram Vanji Sutar, has a height of 84 feet. With the pedestal measuring 41 feet, the total height of the statue stands at 125 feet,” he said.
After the statue's inauguration, Mr Modi will go to Meleng in Jorhat district by road to roll out a number of infrastructure development projects, funded by both state and central governments, and address the public.
“He will hand over 5,55,555 Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) houses to the beneficiaries, marking a significant milestone as the largest number of houses inaugurated in a single day in the country. He will also inaugurate the Tinsukia Medical College and Hospital and lay the foundation for Sivasagar Medical College and Hospital,” the chief minister said. Mr Modi will also inaugurate a child cancer treatment project worth Rs 300 crore at Dr B Borooah Cancer Institute (BBCI) in Guwahati under the PM-DevINE scheme, he added.
The chief minister said other projects that the prime minister will inaugurate are capacity expansions of refineries at Digboi to 1 million metric tonne per annum (MMTPA) from 0.65 MMTPA (Rs 768 crore) and Guwahati to 1.2 MMTPA from 1 MMTPA (Rs 510 crore).
Mr Modi will also start the expansion work for IOC's Betkuchi terminal (Rs 277 crore), partial inauguration of Barauni-Numaligarh gas pipeline up to Guwahati (Rs 3,992 crore), and dedicate OIL's two pumping stations for supplying crude from Guwahati to Bongaigaon (Rs 572 crore) and from Duliajan to Digboi (Rs 51 crore), he added.
"Besides, the PM will inaugurate two railway projects for doubling of tracks, worth Rs 1,328 crore. The first one is from Dhupdhara to Chhaygaon and the other is from New Bongaigaon to Sarbhog," Mr Sarma said.
After the function, he will leave for West Bengal on Saturday evening, he added.
