Guwahati, April 27 (PTI): The Assam government has made elaborate arrangements for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s day-long visit to the state on Thursday, with Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma monitoring the preparations, officials said.
The prime minister is scheduled to reach Dimapur airport in Nagaland at 11 am and from there, take a helicopter to Diphu in Assam’s Karbi Anglong district. He will address the ‘unity, peace and development rally’ at Loringthepi and lay the foundation of several educational and development projects worth over INR 500 crore.
Modi will then leave for Dibrugarh where he will dedicate to the nation the Dibrugarh Cancer Centre at the Assam Medical College Hospital, they said.
Later in the afternoon, he will virtually inaugurate seven cancer hospitals and lay the foundation for seven more across Assam from Khanikar Park in Dibrugarh, where Tata Trusts Chairman Ratan Tata, Union ministers Sarbananda Sonowal and Rameshwar Teli, Governor Jagadish Mukhi and Sarma would also be present.
The seven hospitals that will be inaugurated are at Dibrugarh, Barpeta, Tezpur, Jorhat, Lakhimpur, Kokrajhar and Darrang. The medical establishments whose foundation will be laid are at Dhubri, Goalpara, Golaghat, Sivasagar, Nalbari, Nagaon and Tinsukia.
The chief minister has visited both Dibrugarh and Karbi Anglong districts twice to monitor the preparations. A local holiday has been declared in the two districts on Thursday, with all schools and colleges, and state government offices and institutions to remain closed.
Tight security arrangements have been made and traffic regulations put in place. The transport department has pressed into service over 5,000 buses to bring people to the venues of the programmes. Potholes have been repaired and road dividers painted in the two towns over the last fortnight.
BJP workers have reached out to people in far-flung areas in the two districts and invited them to the events in the traditional Assamese way with ‘paan and tamul’ (betel leaves and areca nuts).
