Surat: In his second visit to his home-state Gujarat this month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Surat and Dandi tomorrow.

During the day long visit, PM will lay the Foundation Stone for the extension of Terminal building at Surat Airport and attend the New India Youth Conclave and inaugurate a hospital there. Later, he would visit Dandi, the historic village in the Jalalpore taluka of neighbouring Navsari District located on the coast of the Arabian Sea where in 1930 Mahatma Gandhi had ended his famous Salt March. The PM would dedicate the National Salt Satyagraha Memorial in Dandi and address a public meeting there.

The Surat Airport Terminal building is to be constructed at a cost of Rs.354 Crore in an area of over 25,500 square meters. It will be an eco-friendly sustainable building, using solar energy and LED lighting. Once completed, it will have a peak handling capacity of over 1800 passengers. Surat airport is the third busiest airport in Gujarat after Ahmedabad and Vadodara in terms of both aircraft movements and passenger traffic.

In Surat, PM will interact with the youth at the New India Youth conclave. He will also inaugurate Rasilaben Sevantilal Shah Venus Hospital and visit the facilities there.

PM’s next destination will be Dandi. The National Salt Satyagraha Memorial to be dedicated to the nation on Bapu’s death anniversary has statues of Mahatma Gandhi and 80 Satyagrahis who had marched with him during the historic Dandi Salt March. The memorial also has 24-narrative murals depicting various events and stories from the historic 1930 Salt March. The PM will walk through the memorial and address a public meeting.

The Salt Satyagraha March,well known as the Dandi March of 1930 has been a landmark event in the history of India’s freedom struggle. It was on this day , as a part of the Civil Disobedience Movement against the British rule, 80 Satyagrahis led by Mahatma Gandhi marched 241-miles from Sabarmati Ashram, Ahmedabad to the coastal village of Dandi and made salt from sea water breaking the Salt Law imposed by the British.

It will be the second visit of the Prime Minister to Gujarat this month. Prime Minister Modi earlier visited Surat on 19 January 2019, to dedicate the Armoured System Complex at Hazira. He attended the Vibrant Gujarat summit in Gandhinagar and participated in other events in Ahmedabad on January 17 and 18.

DeshGujarat