PM to visit Surat and Varanasi on 17-18 December

Prime Minister  Narendra Modi will visit Surat in Gujarat and Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh on 17-18 December. On 17th December, at around 10:45 AM, Prime Minister will inaugurate the New Integrated Terminal Building at Surat Airport. At around 11:15 AM, Prime Minister will inaugurate the Surat Diamond Bourse. Thereafter, he will travel to Varanasi, and at around 3:30 PM, he will participate in Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra. At around 5:15 PM, he will inaugurate Kashi Tamil Sangamam 2023 at Namo Ghat.

On 18th December, at around 10:45 AM, Prime Minister will visit Swarved Mahamandir, which will be followed by its inauguration in a public function at around 11:30 AM. At around 1 PM, Prime Minister will participate in Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra. Thereafter, in a public function, at around 2:15 PM, Prime Minister will inaugurate and lay the foundation stone of multiple development projects worth over Rs. 19,150 crores.

PM in Surat

Prime Minister will inaugurate the New Integrated Terminal Building of Surat Airport. The Terminal building is equipped to handle 1200 Domestic passengers and 600 International passengers during peak hours and has provision for further increasing the peak hour capacity to 3000 passengers with annual handling capacity increasing to 55 lakh passengers. The terminal building, as it is the gateway to Surat City, has been designed with its local culture and heritage ensuring that the essence should reflect both in interior and exterior, creating a sense of place for the visitors. The façade of the upgraded terminal building aims to enrich the passenger experience with the rich and traditional woodwork of the old houses of the ‘Rander’ region of Surat City. The GRIHA IV compliant New Terminal Building of the airport is equipped with various sustainability features like Double Insulated Roofing System, Canopies for energy saving, Low Heat Gain Double Glazing Unit, Rain Water Harvesting, water treatment plant, Sewage treatment plant and use of recycled water for landscaping and solar power plant among others.

PM will also inaugurate Surat Diamond Bourse. It will be the World’s largest and modern centre for international diamond and jewellery business. It will be a global centre for trading of both rough and polished diamonds as well as jewellery. Bourse will comprise state of the art ‘Customs Clearance House’ for Import – Export; Jewellery mall for retail jewellery business and  facility of International Banking and Safe Vaults.

PM in Varanasi

On 17th December, Prime Minister will participate in Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra at Cutting Memorial School ground, Varanasi. There, Prime Minister will interact with the beneficiaries of various government schemes such as PM Awas, PM SWANidhi, PM Ujjwala among others

In line with his vision of Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat, Prime Minister will inaugurate Kashi Tamil Sangamam 2023 at Namo Ghat. On the occasion, Prime Minister will  also flag off the Kanyakumari – Varanasi Tamil Sangamam train.

On 18th December, Prime Minister will inaugurate the newly built SwarVed Mahamandir in Umaraha, Varanasi.  He will also address devotees of Mahamandir on the occasion

After that, Prime Minister will participate in Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra in Sewapuri, a rural area of his constituency. He will also witness some live sports events by participants of Kashi Sansad Khel Pratiyogita 2023. After that, he will also interact with the winners of the event. He will also interact with beneficiaries of various government schemes during the event.

In the last nine years, Prime Minister has put a special focus on transforming the landscape of Varanasi and enhancing the ease of living for the people living in Varanasi and adjoining regions. Taking another step in this direction, Prime Minister will dedicate and lay the foundation stone of various development projects costing around  Rs. 19,150 crore.

Prime Minister will inaugurate New Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay Nagar-New Bhaupur Dedicated Freight Corridor Project built at a cost of  around Rs. 10,900 crore. Other railway projects which will be inaugurated include Ballia-Ghazipur City rail line doubling project; Indara-Dohrighat rail line gauge conversion project, among others.

Prime Minister will  flag off Varanasi-New Delhi Vande Bharat Express train, Dohrighat-Mau MEMU train and a pair of Long Haul goods trains at the newly inaugurated Dedicated Freight Corridor. He will also flag off the 10,000th locomotive made by Banaras Locomotive Works.

Prime Minister will inaugurate green-field Shivpur-Phulwaria-Lahartara road along with two ROBs at a cost of more than Rs 370 crore. It will ease the traffic moment between north and south part of Varanasi city and will enhance visitors convenience. Further key projects to be inaugurated by Prime Minister include strengthening and widening of 20 roads; Sangam Ghat road in Kaithi village and construction of residential buildings in Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay Hospital.

Additionally, to cater the housing needs of police personnel, two 200 and 150 bed multi-storey barrack buildings in Police line and PAC Bhullanpur, smart bus shelters built at 9 locations and 132 KW substation built at Alaipur will also be inaugurated by Prime Minister.

Under the Smart City Mission, a website for detailed tourist information and the Unified Tourist Pass System will be launched by Prime Minister. The unified pass will provide single platform ticket booking for Shri Kashi Vishwanath Dham, Ganga Cruise, and Sarnath’s light and sound show, offering integrated QR code services.

Prime Minister will also lay the foundation stone of various projects worth more than Rs. 6500 crore. In order to increase the production of non-renewable energy resources, Prime Minister will lay the foundation of an 800 MW solar park in Chitrakoot district at a cost of around Rs. 4000 crore. To augment the petroleum supply chain, he will lay the foundation of the construction of a new petroleum oil terminal at Mirzapur to be built at a cost of over Rs. 1050 crore.

Other projects whose foundation stone will be laid by Prime Minister include widening of Varanasi-Bhadohi NH 731 B (Package-2) at a cost of over Rs. 900 crore; 69 rural drinking water schemes under Jal Jeevan Mission at a cost of Rs. 280 Crore; construction of 150 bed capacity Critical Care Unit in BHU Trauma Center; redevelopment work of 8 Ganga Ghats, construction work of Divyang residential secondary school among others.

16 DEC 2023 11:58AM by PIB Delhi

In line with his vision of Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat, Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi will inaugurate Kashi Tamil Sangamam 2023 at Namo Ghat on 17 December 2023. On the occasion, Prime Minister will also flag off the Kanyakumari – Varanasi Tamil Sangamam train. Governor of Uttar Pradesh, Smt. Anandiben Patel; Union Minister for Education and Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, Shri Dharmendra Pradhan; Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Yogi Adityanath; and other dignitaries will also be present for the event.

The second phase of Kashi Tamil Sangamam will commence from 17th to 30th December, 2023 at the holy city of Kashi (Varanasi). The first batch of the Tamil delegation has left from Chennai on 15th December 2023. Nearly 1400 (7 Groups of 200 persons each) people are expected to be travelling from different parts of Tamil Nadu, representing varied walks of life. During their stay in Kashi, as per their tour itinerary, they will also visit Prayagraj and Ayodhya.

The 7 groups of Students (Ganga), Teachers (Yamuna), Professionals (Godavari), Spiritual (Saraswati), Farmers and Artisans (Narmada), Writers (Sindhu) and Traders and Businessmen (Kaveri) have been named after seven sacred rivers of India will travel from Chennai, Coimbatore and Kanyakumari to Kashi. More than 42,000 registrations were received during the time of registration that ended on 8th December, 2023. Out of them, 200 people for each group were selected by the selection committee.

The Ministry of Education, Government of India, will be the nodal agency for this event with participation from the Ministries of Culture, Tourism, Railways, Textiles, Food Processing (ODOP), MSME, Information & Broadcasting, Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, IRCTC and related departments of Government of Uttar Pradesh. Leveraging the experience of the first phase and considering its reputation for research, IIT Madras will be acting as the implementing agency in Tamil Nadu and Banaras Hindu University (BHU) in Uttar Pradesh.

The representative itinerary will include a 2-day outbound trip, a 2-day return trip to Banaras and a 1-day trip, each to Prayagraj and Ayodhya. Stalls showcasing art and culture, handlooms, handicrafts, cuisine and other special products of Tamil Nadu and Kashi will be set up. Cultural programmes combining the cultures of Tamil Nadu and Kashi will also be organized at the Namo Ghat in Kashi. During the entire period of the event, seminars, discussions, lectures, etc. will be organized on various aspects of knowledge like literature, ancient texts, philosophy, spirituality, music, dance, drama, yoga, ayurveda, handloom, handicrafts along with modern innovations, business exchanges, EdTech and other next-generation technologies. Apart from this, experts and scholars, local practitioners of various disciplines/professions from Tamil Nadu and Kashi will also participate in these exchanges so that a body of practical knowledge/innovation can emerge from mutual learning in different areas.

The first phase of the Kashi Tamil Sangamam was organized from 16th November to 16th December 2022, with the Ministry of Education working as the nodal agency. More than 2500 people from Tamil Nadu representing 12 different walks of life travelled to Kashi, Prayagraj and Ayodhya on an 8-day tour during which they had the opportunity to get an immersive experience of different aspects of life in and around Varanasi.