Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to visit Chennai on May 26. This will be his first visit since the DMK government under Chief Minister M.K. Stalin assumed office in May last year. In an event scheduled to commence in the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium here at 5.45 p.m., the Prime Minister is set to dedicate to the nation and lay the foundation stone for 11 projects, worth over ₹31,400 crore in the State. Security arrangements have been beefed up in Chennai as a few political parties had announced that they would stage a protest on May 26 and 27, against “Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Central government over economic hardship and social disturbances created by right-wing groups in India”.
The Prime Minister would dedicate to the nation four railway projects implemented at a cost of over ₹2,900 crore. They are: the 75-km-long Madurai-Theni (Railway Gauge Conversion Project) built at a cost of over ₹500 crore, the 30-km-long third railway line between Tambaram-Chengalpattu built at a cost of over ₹590 crore, the 115-km-long Ennore-Chengalpattu section at a cost of ₹850 crore and the 271-km-long Tiruvallur-Bengaluru section of a natural gas pipeline at a cost of ₹910 crore.
Mr. Modi would also witness the inauguration of 1,152 houses, constructed as part of the Light House Project- Chennai at a cost of ₹116 crore under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban.
He would also lay the foundation stone of six projects being built at a cost of over ₹28,500 crore, a PIB release said. The 262-km-long Bengaluru-Chennai Expressway would be laid at a cost of over ₹14,870 crore and it is expected to reduce travel time between these cities by two to three hours. The four-lane double-decker elevated road, connecting Chennai Port to Maduravoyal (NH-4) of about 21 km length would be constructed at a cost of about ₹5,850 crore. The 94-km-long four-lane Neraluru to Dharmapuri section of NH-844 and the 31-km-long two-lane with paved shoulders of Meensurutti to Chidambaram section of NH-227, being built at a cost of around ₹3,870 crore and ₹720 respectively, will help provide seamless connectivity in the region, the release said.
The foundation stone for the redevelopment of five railway stations— Chennai Egmore, Kanniyakumari, Katpadi, Madurai and Rameswaram— would also be laid during the event. The project would be completed at a cost of over ₹1,800 crore.
He would also lay the foundation stone of a multi-modal logistics park in Chennai, to be set up at ₹1,400 crore.
