PM in Pune on Aug 1, to be conferred Lokmanya Tilak National Award

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Pune in Maharashtra on Tuesday during which he will perform 'pooja' at Dagdusheth Mandir, will be conferred Lokmanya Tilak National Award and will lay the foundation stone for various development projects. Prime Minister Modi will visit Pune on August 1 and at around 11 am, he will perform 'darshan and pooja' at Dagdusheth Mandir, a statement issued by the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) said. At 11.45 am, he will be conferred the Lokmanya Tilak National Award.

Thereafter, at 12.45 pm, the Prime Minister will flag off metro trains and inaugurate and lay the foundation stone for various development projects. Modi will flag off Metro trains marking inauguration of services on completed sections of the two corridors of Pune Metro Phase I. These sections are from Phugewadi station to Civil Court station and Garware College station to Ruby Hall Clinic station, it said. The foundation stone for the project was also laid by Prime Minister Modi in 2016. The new sections will connect important places of the Pune city like Shivaji Nagar, Civil Court, Pune Municipal Corporation office, Pune RTO and Pune Railway Station.

The inauguration is an important step towards realising the vision of the Prime Minister to provide the citizens with modern and environment-friendly mass rapid urban transport systems across the country, the statement said. The design of some of the metro stations on the route draws inspiration from Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, it said. The Chhatrapati Sambhaji Udyan Metro Station and Deccan Gymkhana metro stations have a unique design resembling the headgear worn by soldiers of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj - also known as "Mavala Pagadi". The Shivaji Nagar underground Metro station has a distinctive design which reminds of the forts built by Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. Another unique feature is that the Civil Court metro station is one of the deepest metro stations in the country, having the deepest point at 33.1 metres. The station roof is made in such a manner that direct sunlight falls on the platform.

Prime Minister Modi will also inaugurate the Waste to Energy Plant under Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC). Developed at a cost of about Rs 300 crore, it will use up about 2.5 lakh MT of waste annually to produce electricity. Moving ahead towards the mission of achieving housing for all, Prime Minister Modi will hand over more than 1,280 houses constructed under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana by PCMC. He will also hand over more than 2,650 PMAY houses constructed by the Pune Municipal Corporation. Further, Modi will also lay the foundation stone for around 1,190 PMAY houses to be constructed by the PCMC, and of more than 6,400 houses constructed by the Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority.

The Prime Minister will also be conferred Lokmanya Tilak National Award. The award was constituted by Tilak Smarak Mandir Trust in 1983, to honour the legacy of Lokmanya Tilak. The award is given to people who have worked for the progress and development of the nation and whose contribution can only be looked upon as remarkable and extraordinary. It is presented every year on the 1st of August - Lokmanya Tilak's death anniversary. Prime Minister Modi will become the 41st recipient of the award. It has previously been presented to luminaries such as Dr. Shankar Dayal Sharma, Pranab Mukherjee, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Indira Gandhi, Manmohan Singh, N. R. Narayana Murthy, E. Sreedharan among others