Gandhinagar: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will tomorrow arrive on a two-day visit to Gujarat, which would be his tenth visit to the home-state after assuming the office of PM.

Mr Modi would inaugurate the largest extra dosed cable bridge of the country made on river Narmada in Bharuch, which would bring a permanent end to the traffic woes and long jams on the all important Ahmedabad-Mumbai NH 8. The 1344 meter long bridge is made at a cost of Rs 379 crore.

He would also visit Somnath Temple, for the first time after becoming prime minister and is likely to participate in the meeting of its trustee board.

As per the official schedule the PM will arrive at Surat airport at around 2.30pm tomorrow from where he will take a helicopter to Dahej for the inauguration of an industrial plant. At 5.00 pm he will reach Bharuch to open new bridge on the Narmada and address a public gathering. At 7.00 pm he will arrive at Ahmedabad airport from where he will go directly to Raj Bhavan in Gandhinagar where he will stay for night. The PM will take part in dinner hosted by governor O P Kohli and CM Vijay Rupani. The PM is also likely to meet state government ministers and key office bearers of the party including state president Jeetu Vaghani.

On the next day ie March 8, at 8.00am he will leave Ahmedabad airport for Diu from where he will move to Somnath on Chopper. After praying at Somanath temple he will return to Ahmedabad at 11.00 am. He will have lunch at Raj Bhavan and will address a gathering of around 6,000 women sarpanches from across the country at 2.30 pm at Mahatma Mandir on the occasion of International women’s day. The PM will return to Delhi at around 6.00 pm.

Meanwhile, though there is no mention of his meeting with his mother in the official schedule, Mr Modi is likely to meet 97 year old Hirab
a living with his younger brother Pankaj Modi at his Raisan residence, in the morning of March 8.

Union Minister Mansukh Mandaviya today said that the Prime Minister would offer prayers at Somnath temple in the morning of March 8 and was likely to participate in its trustee board meeting.

This will be seventh visit by the PM to Gujarat from September last year and second one this year which is an election year as the assembly polls are due to be held by December 2017.

He had himself said during a meeting on the occasion of the inauguration of SAUNI project in Saurashtra on August 30 last year that he would visit Gujarat more frequently in the future. His last visit to the state was in January this year to participate in Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit prior to which he had participated in a meeting in Deesa in North Gujarat on December 10. On October 22 he was in Vadodara to inaugurate the international terminal building of the airport there. In September last year he celebrated his birthday with tribal people in central Gujarat. on August 15 last year he had visited Sarangpur in Botad district to pay homage to Swami Pramukh of BAPS. In December 2015 he had participated in the DG conference in Dhordo of Kutch. Before that in January that year he had participated in the earlier edition of biennial Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit. In September 2015 he was on his first visit to Gujarat after assuming the office of Prime Minister on the occasion of the visit of Chinese President Xi Xinping.

DeshGujaat