PM Modi to launch projects worth Rs 6800 cr in Tripura, Meghalaya

SHILLONG/AGARTALA: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to visit Meghalaya and Tripura on Sunday to inaugurate a slew of projects and take part in the golden jubilee celebrations of the North East Council (NEC), besides chairing meetings and addressing rallies, officials in the two states said.

In Meghalaya capital Shillong, the PM, who is expected to arrive around 9.30 am, will be inaugurating a campus of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) among other projects.

He will also be helming a meeting of the NEC at the state convention hall, following a programme that has been arranged to mark the council's golden jubilee.

Members of the NEC, including Union Home Minister Amit Shah, other central ministers and lawmakers of the northeast, are scheduled to attend the programme.

The PM, on the occasion, will release a commemorative journal chronicling NEC's contribution towards the development of the northeastern region over the last fifty years, a senior official told PTI.

Modi will later address a public meeting at Polo Grounds here.

The official said that around 10,000 people are expected to attend the public meeting.

The venue where the PM is set to address the rally has been declared a 'no-drone flying zone', he said.

Security has been tightened in view of the PM's visit to the northeastern states, where polls are due early next year.

In Tripura, the PM is expected to land at Maharaja Bir Bikram airport at 2.25 pm.

Modi will then leave for Vivekananda Ground in the state capital to address a rally, said District Magistrate (DM), West Tripura, Debapriya Bardhan.

He will also lay foundation stones for a series of initiatives and inaugurate multiple projects, besides interacting with the beneficiaries of the central and state governments, Bardhan stated.

The DM said that special trains have been arranged to ferry people from all over the state to the rally.

Besides, buses will also be deployed for transporting beneficiaries of government schemes to the public meeting, he maintained.

Bardhan said Modi, after the rally, will head to the state guest house around 4 pm.

Sources in the BJP said the PM will chair separate meetings of state ministers and the BJP's core committee, with an eye on the next year's assembly election.

The PM is scheduled to leave the state in the evening.

The BJP government in Tripura has urged the central and state government officials in Agartala to attend the rally.

"We are expecting 72,000 beneficiaries at Vivekananda Ground on December 18. The entire ground will be under CCTV surveillance," the DM said.

Superintendent of Police of West Tripura, Sankar Debnath, said the BSF has also been put on alert for the PM visit.

"The BSF and Tripura State Rifles (TSR) are jointly patrolling the border areas," Debnath added.