PM Narendra Modi's itinerary skips Bhogapuram event

Visakhapatnam: The much-awaited two-day tour of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Visakhapatnam and part of his visit to Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Tamil Nadu is purely official.

Though the State Government wanted the PM to lay the foundation stone for the Bhogapuram greenfield airport, the itinerary released by PMO does not mention anything about it.

According to the schedule, the Prime Minister will inaugurate and lay the foundation stone for projects worth over Rs 10,500 crores.

He will lay the foundation stone of the Andhra Pradesh section of six-lane Greenfield Raipur- Visakhapatnam Economic Corridor. It will be built at a cost of more than Rs 3,750 crore. The Economic Corridor will provide faster connectivity between Industrial Nodes of Chhattisgarh and Odisha to Visakhapatnam Port and Chennai - Kolkata National Highway and will improve connectivity to tribal and backward areas of Andhra Pradesh and Odisha.

The Prime Minister will also lay the foundation stone of a dedicated Port Road from Convent Junction to Sheela Nagar Junction in Visakhapatnam. It will ease traffic congestion in Visakhapatnam City by segregating local and port-bound goods traffic. The other programmes include inaugurating Narasannapeta to Pathapatnam section of NH-326A built at a cost of more than Rs 200 crore as a part of Srikakulam- Gajapati Corridor for better connectivity.

Modi will also inaugurate the U-field Onshore Deep water block project of ONGC in Andhra Pradesh, developed at a cost of more than Rs 2,900 crore. It is the deepest gas discovery of the project with gas production potential of about 3 million metric standard cubic metres per day (MMSCMD). He will lay the foundation stone of Srikakulam Angul Natural Gas Pipeline Project of GAIL with capacity of around 6.65 MMSCMD. This 745-km long pipeline will be built at a total cost of more than Rs 2,650 crore. The pipeline will supply natural gas to the City Gas Distribution Network in Srikakulam and Vizianagaram districts of Andhra Pradesh. He is also scheduled to lay the foundation stone for redevelopment of Rs 450-crore Visakhapatnam Railway Station. The redeveloped station would cater to 75,000 passengers per day and foundation stone of modernization and upgradation of the Visakhapatnam Fishing Harbour to double the handling capacity.

The SPG, which had studied the route map of PM's roadshow (Shobha Yatra) planned by state BJP, made changes. It will now be held from Maruthi junction near INS Dega and will pass through the Naval Dockyard Road towards INS Chola up to an extent of 1-km to 1.5-km between 7:30 pm and 8 pm. "Apart from the party leaders, supporters and activists, a large number of Modi admirers are expected to take part in the roadshow," according to sources. The roadshow has been organised since this is the first visit of PM to Vizag after 2019.