PM Modi to visit Himachal on October 5; to inaugurate AIIMS Bilaspur, participate in Kullu Dussehra

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 3

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Himachal Pradesh on October 5 and will participate in the Kullu Dusehra festivities besides inaugurating projects worth over Rs 3650 crore.

The visit comes days after a previous scheduled tour of the PM to Mandi had to be cancelled on account of bad weather.

On Wednesday morning, the Prime Minister will inaugurate AIIMS Bilaspur after which he will reach Luhnu Ground of Bilaspur at around 12:45 pm, where he will inaugurate and lay the foundation stone of multiple development projects and address a public function.

The PM will reach the Dhalpur Ground of Kullu at around 3:15 pm, where he will participate in Kullu Dussehra celebrations.

The visit is significant as it comes ahead of the Himachal Pradesh elections with the incumbent BJP seeking another term as the Congress continues to lose MLAs and leaders to the saffron fold.

AIIMS Bilaspur is a key government project with foundation stone laid in October 2017 and is coming up under the Centre’s Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana. Constructed at a cost of more than Rs 1470 crore, AIIMS Bilaspur is a state-of-the-art hospital with 18 specialty and 17 super-specialty departments, 18 modular operation theatres, 750 beds with 64 ICU beds.

It is spread over 247 acres and has 24 hours emergency and dialysis facilities, modern diagnostics and a 30-bedded AYUSH block.

The Hospital has also set up the Centre for Digital Health to provide health services in the tribal and inaccessible tribal areas of Himachal Pradesh, the government said.

Also, specialist health services will be provided by the hospital through health camps in the inaccessible tribal and high Himalayan regions like Kaza, Saluni, and Keylong.  

The hospital will admit 100 students for MBBS course and 60 students for nursing courses every year.

Development projects to be unveiled by the PM include -- foundation stone of around 30-km long project for four-laning of the National Highway from Pinjore to Nalagarh on NH-105, worth over Rs 1690 crore.

The road is a major connecting link for the traffic from Ambala, Chandigarh, Panchkula and Solan /Shimla going towards Bilaspur, Mandi and Manali. About 18 km stretch of this four-lane national highway falls under Himachal Pradesh and the remaining portion falls in Haryana.

“This highway will ensure better transport facilities in Nalagarh-Baddi, the industrial hub of Himachal Pradesh, and will also give a fillip to further industrial development in the region. It will also boost tourism in the state," a PMO release said.

The Prime Minister will also lay the foundation stone of the Medical Device Park at Nalagarh, which will be built at a cost of about Rs 350 crore.

MoUs of more than Rs 800 crore have already been signed for setting up industries in this Medical Device Park. The project will significantly enhance employment opportunities in the region.

Government Hydro Engineering College at Bandla will also be inaugurated by PM Modi.

Costing about Rs 140 crore, the college will help make available trained manpower for hydro power projects, in which Himachal Pradesh is one of the leading states. It will help in upskilling the youth and providing ample job opportunities in the hydro power sector.

Modi's Himachal visit is equally important as he would become the first PM to take part in Kullu Dusehra.

The International Kullu Dussehra Festival will be celebrated from October 5 to 11, at Dhalpur Ground of Kullu.

The festival represents a congregation of more than 300 deities of the Valley. On the first day of the festival, the deities in their well decorated palanquins pay their obeisance at the temple of the chief deity Bhagwan Raghunath Ji and then proceed to the Dhalpur Ground.

"The Prime Minister will witness this divine ‘Rath Yatra’ and the grand assembly of the deities in the historic Kullu Dussehra celebrations. It will be the first time ever that the Prime Minister of the country is participating in the Kullu Dussehra celebrations," PMO said.

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