Prime Minister Shri 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.