Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is set to begin his two-day Gujarat visit on Saturday, will inaugurate the four-lane cable-stayed bridge between Okha and Beyt Dwarka in Devbhumi Dwarka district apart from holding a road show in Jamnagar on Sunday.
He will also launch the state’s first All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Rajkot on Sunday, state Health Minister Rushikesh Patel said on Friday. This will be one of the five AIIMS to be dedicated to the nation by the prime minister from Rajkot on February 25, the minister said.
Speaking to reporters in Gandhinagar, minister Patel said the out-patient department (OPD) of the super-speciality hospital near Para Pipaliya village on the outskirts of Rajkot city was operational.
PM Modi, who laid the foundation stone of the mega facility through video conferencing in December 2020, will inaugurate the in-patient department (IPD), Patel said. “Spread across 201 acres, Rajkot AIIMS is a world-class hospital with 720 beds, including ICU and super-speciality beds. On February 25, the prime minister will inaugurate 23 operation theatres, 30-bed AYUSH block and 250 beds of IPD. The remaining beds will be made available gradually,” Patel said.
The hospital was built at the cost of Rs 1,195 crore, he said, adding the OPD has already served nearly 1.44 lakh patients so far. As per a government release, the prime minister will arrive at Rajkot AIIMS on Sunday afternoon and address a rally at the Race Course ground in the city later in the evening. He will take part in a kilometre-long road show from the old airport to the venue of the public rally, it stated.
PM Modi’s schedule
During the function, the prime minister will also virtually inaugurate four other newly-built AIIMS, located in Mangalagiri (Andhra Pradesh), Bathinda (Punjab), Rae Bareli (Uttar Pradesh), and Kalyani (West Bengal), Patel said. The five super-speciality hospitals, including the one in Rajkot, have been built by the Centre at a cost of Rs 6,300 crore, he said. Modi will also inaugurate and perform ground-breaking for projects of Rs 48,000 crore of different state and Central departments, such as NHAI, Railways, Energy and Petrochemicals, Road and Building, Ports and Health and Family Welfare, the minister said.
Of these, projects of Rs 35,700 crore are for Gujarat, while the remaining are for other states, he said. The prime minister will launch key projects, including power generation projects in Kutch, ground-breaking for the new Mundra Panipat crude-oil pipeline project, new cardiology hospital in Vadodara and doubling of the Rajkot-Surendranagar railway line, among others, Patel said. The prime minister will arrive for his Gujarat visit at Jamnagar airport late Saturday evening and then stay overnight at the Circuit House after leading a 2-kilometre road show between the two sites.
On Sunday morning, he will offer prayers at the Shri Beyt Dwarkadhish Mandir and then inaugurate the four-lane cable-stayed bridge between Okha and Beyt Dwarka island. “The 2.32 km bridge, including 900 metres of central double span cable-stayed portion and a 2.45 km long approach road, was constructed at a cost of Rs 979 crore. The four-lane 27.20 metre wide bridge has 2.50 metre wide footpaths on each side,” said an official release by the Devbhumi Dwarka administration on Friday.
PM Modi had laid the foundation stone of this bridge in October 2017 and had said it will serve as a link between old and new Dwarka. District Collector GT Pandya said the bridge, which was known as ‘Signature Bridge’, has been renamed as ‘Sudarshan Setu’ or Sudarshan Bridge.
Beyt Dwarka is an island near Okha port, which is nearly 30 km from Dwarka town, where the famous Dwarkadhish temple of Lord Krishna is situated. At present, devotees visiting the temple at Beyt Dwarka can travel only during the day by boat, while the construction of the bridge will allow them to travel at all times, officials said.
The PM will also visit Dwarka town and offer prayers at Dwarkadhish temple before addressing a large gathering nearby. From the venue, he will inaugurate or perform ground breaking of several projects in Jamnagar, Devbhumi Dwarka and Porbandar districts, said the official release.
These projects include electrification of a 533 km long railway line and inauguration of two offshore pipelines of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas at Vadinar, it said.
(With PTI inputs)
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