PM Modi to launch Rs 16,000-crore projects, honour Assam martyrs during state visit: Himanta

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s upcoming two-day visit to Assam from December 20 will be “significant, symbolic and substantial” for the state, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on December 18 after reviewing preparations at the state BJP headquarters in Guwahati.

Sarma said the visit carries importance beyond politics. “We do not want to link the Prime Minister’s visit to election politics as he has been elected to run the nation. But his programmes in the state are very significant and symbolic,” he told reporters. Assembly elections in Assam are scheduled for early next year.

Modi will arrive in Guwahati on Saturday afternoon and begin his engagements by unveiling an 80-foot statue of former chief minister Gopinath Bordoloi — a Congress leader who was posthumously awarded the Bharat Ratna by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government. He will also inaugurate the new ₹4,000-crore terminal of Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport and address a public gathering outside the terminal complex.

A roadshow towards the BJP headquarters in Bashishta will follow, where the Prime Minister will interact with party workers. “This is the first time that a Prime Minister will visit a BJP office in the state, and it is a historic occasion for us,” Sarma remarked.

Modi is expected to stay overnight at the state guest house in Koinadhora, Khanapara. On Sunday, he will hold an interactive session with 25 meritorious students under his ‘Pariksha Pe Charcha’ initiative, this time aboard the cruise ship Charaideo sailing on the Brahmaputra. “The Prime Minister has a weakness for the River Brahmaputra,” Sarma recalled, noting that a similar plan during the Japanese Prime Minister’s visit years ago had to be cancelled.

According to the Chief Minister, Modi’s cruise event is expected to boost river tourism, much like his visit to Kaziranga led to record tourist arrivals. “We expect the same catalytic effect on river tourism in Assam when he takes a cruise on the Brahmaputra,” he said.

The Prime Minister will later pay homage at the newly built Swahid Smarak Kshetra, dedicated to the 860 martyrs of the Assam Movement, before travelling to Dibrugarh and Namrup. His final engagement will be the foundation-laying ceremony for the Rs 12,000-crore ammonia-urea fertiliser plant at Namrup — a project Sarma described as a “substantial impetus to Assam’s growth and development.” Modi will also address a public meeting there before returning to New Delhi.