Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be in Bihar on Friday when he is scheduled to inaugurate development projects worth more than Rs 13,000 crore, including a bridge over the river Ganges, besides addressing a rally.
The PM's programmes will be held at a time Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's ‘Voter Adhikar Yatra' is underway in the state. Assembly elections are due in the state this year.
During his nearly four-hour-long tour of Bihar, the PM will undertake whistle stop visits to Gaya, Patna and Begusarai district.
The trip will begin at Gaya, where he will inaugurate projects like a 660 MW power project, situated at Buxar and built at a cost of Rs 6,880 crore.
Another project to be inaugurated by the Prime Minister is the Homi Bhabha Cancer Hospital and Research Centre in the north Bihar district of Muzaffarpur, which promises “advanced and affordable cancer care to patients in Bihar and neighbouring states”.
The PM will also inaugurate a Rs 520 crore Sewerage Treatment Plant at Munger, built under the Namami Gange scheme, and “a series of urban infrastructure projects worth around Rs 1.260 crore” Besides, Modi will flag off an Amrit Bharat Express connecting Gaya to Delhi and a Buddhist Circuit train that will link Vaishali in north Bihar to Koderma in neihgbouring Jharkhand.
Symbolic handing over of keys to 12,000 beneficiaries of PM Awas Yojana (Gramin) will also take place.
After launching the projects and addressing the public, the PM is scheduled to visit Mokama in Patna district, about 100 kms from the state capital, where he will inaugurate the “8.15 km long Aunta-Simaria bridge” The bridge includes a 1.86 kms long six-lane stretch that connects Aunta, in Mokama, to Simaria, across the Ganges in Begusarai district, which also happens to be the birth place of renowned Hindi poet Ram Dhari Singh Dinkar.
“The bridge has been constructed parallel to the dilapidated two-lane Rajendra Setu”, which is no longer fit for the movement of heavy vehicles. According to an official release, the new bridge will save heavy vehicles, ferrying between north and south Bihar, “an extra detour of 100 kms” and “reduce traffic jams in the region”.
The bridge is expected to give a boost to “economic growth in north Bihar, which is dependent on south Bihar and Jharkhand for raw material, besides providing better connectivity to Simaria Dham, a pilgrimage spot in Begusarai”.
Meanwhile, all eyes will be on the PM's public address, which will come amidst a politically charged atmosphere, with Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi's Voter Adhikar Yatra also underway in Bihar.
Gandhi, whose fortnight-long Yatra aims at galvanising the public against the special intensive revision of electoral rolls, in a state where assembly polls are less than two months away, is likely to be in Munger, on the way to Bhagalpur, while the PM will be holding forth in Gaya, followed by visits to Mokama and Begusarai.
It will be the 54th visit of the state by the PM, his seventh this year, according to BJP sources, who have been stressing that the high frequency of his Bihar tours indicates the priority his government gives to the development of the eastern province.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
