Vizag to echo ‘Namo’ on January 8

 Visakhapatnam: An army of ministers, MPs, MLAs and leaders of the alliance party now have a sole agenda to achieve and that is making the ensuing trip of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s public meeting and road show in Visakhapatnam a historical event in Andhra Pradesh.

As part of his visit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lay the foundation stone for severaldevelopment works worth thousands of crores of rupees and launch some projects in the state in a virtual mode. The foundation stone of the South Coast new railway zone, which has been pending for decades, will be laid as part of his visit.

Already, the state ministers and constituency leaders are busy mobilising people for both the road show followed by the public meeting. HRD Minister Nara Lokesh personally examined the arrangements for the PM’s roadshow and public meeting ahead of PM’s visit to Vizag slated on January 8.

To make Modi’s public meeting a massive hit, the alliance party leaders met at the TDP office under the chairmanship of state president Palla Srinivasa Rao.

Union Aviation Minister Kinjarapu Rammohan Naidu, Ministers Vangalapudi Anitha, Kondapalli Srinivas, DBV Swamy, MLAs PGVR Naidu (Ganababu), Velagapudi Ramakrishna Babu, Vamsi Krishna Srinivas Yadav, Gauthu Sireesha and Sundarapu Vijay Kumar, BJP district president M Ravindra Reddy, TDP Visakhapatnam parliamentary constituency president Gandi Babji and other key leaders discussed the need to make grand arrangements for the PM’s road show plus public gathering.

As per the instructions of Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, top leaders of the alliance party are going to mobilise people and party cadre from the booth level of each constituency. The party leaders decided to provide additional vehicles in terms of parties along with government vehicles. About 1.7 lakh people from Visakhapatnam district and 1.3 lakh people from Anakapalli, Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Alluri Sitharama Raju, Parvathipuram and Manyam districts are expected to take part in the public meeting. About 2,000 buses, 3,000 auto-rickshaws, maxi cabs and 800 mini buses will be used to help people reach the venue from various districts. In addition, plans are being prepared to avail RTC buses from other districts of the state. The entire venue at the Andhra University Engineering College Grounds will echo the slogan ‘Namo’ during the PM’s visit.

The city police are pulling out all stops to make elaborate security arrangements for the PM. About 7,000 police personnel are being deployed for the purpose. Efforts are on to ensure dedicated parking zones to streamline traffic so that people will not face any inconvenience. In the five-km radius at AU grounds, drone cameras will be prohibited.

All along the roadshow, cultural presentations, highlighting North Andhra culture will be organised. In the meantime, Visakhapatnam Steel Plant union leaders and employees are expecting a favourable announcement of withdrawal ofprivatisation of the VSP from the PM.