Manipur govt preparing for proposed VVIP visit in September

Imphal/Aizawl, Sep 2 (IANS) Amid the media reports about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s possible visit to Manipur on September 13, the state government has asked the officials to make necessary arrangements in Imphal and Churachandpur district in connection with the proposed visit of a VVIP to the state, officials said on Monday.

A notification issued by the General Administration Department, however, did not mention the name of the VVIP or the date of the visit.

According to the notification available with IANS, Manipur Chief Secretary Puneet Kumar Goel held a meeting with the senior civil and security officials earlier this week to review arrangements in connection with the proposed visit of a VVIP to the state.

The chief secretary told the officials attending the meeting that the visit of the VVIP needs to be organised in a grand manner, they said.

“All security arrangements as per Blue Book, including installation of jammer, sanitisation and anti-sabotage checking of en route and function venue at Kangla Fort (in Imphal) and in Churachandpur district,” the notification said.

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma earlier said that the Prime Minister is expected to be on a two-day visit to Assam on September 13-14.

PM Modi's visit is centred around the birth centenary celebrations of cultural icon and Bharat Ratna Bhupen Hazarika, and will also inaugurate the official celebrations on September 13 in Guwahati.

Officials in Mizoram on Monday said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Mizoram on September 13 to inaugurate the newly constructed 51.38 km Bairabi-Sairang new railway project.

Officials of the Mizoram government unofficially said they have received informal information that from Aizawl, the Prime Minister is likely to visit Manipur, his first trip since the ethnic violence broke out in the state in May 2023.

However, the senior officials both in Mizoram and Manipur officially said that they have yet to get any official confirmation about the Prime Minister’s visit to Manipur.

Meanwhile, the Mizoram government and the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) officials earlier said that the Prime Minister is likely to inaugurate the Bairabi-Sairang new railway project on September 13, making Aizawl the fourth capital city in the Northeast to be connected by rail.

The official in the Chief Minister's Office (CMO), Mizoram, said that though the final confirmation of the Prime Minister's schedule is yet to come from the PMO, it is most likely that he would inaugurate the railway project on September 13.

The CMO official said that Mizoram Chief Minister Lalduhoma, while addressing the 15th Conference of the Mizoram Police Service Association (MPSA) on August 22, indicated that the Prime Minister is likely to flag off the Bairabi–Sairang railway project on September 13.

A senior official of Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) headquarters in Maligaon (near Guwahati) had said that on September 13, the Prime Minister is most likely to inaugurate the 51.38 km new railway line project from Bairabi, near Assam's Hailakandi district, to Sairang, near Aizawl city, bringing direct rail connectivity to the Mizoram state capital for the first time.

"However, we are waiting for the final confirmation of the Prime Minister's schedule from the PMO," the NFR official had said. Mizoram CMO official said that on July 14, Chief Minister Lalduhoma met Prime Minister Modi at his official residence in New Delhi and also invited him to formally inaugurate the newly completed Bairabi-Sairang railway line and the new Sairang Railway Station.

The official of the NFR said that the Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS), Northeast Frontier Circle, Sumeet Singhal, after visiting the newly laid railway tracks between June 6 and June 10, authorised the NFR to operate both goods and passenger trains on the line.

The Bairabi-Sairang railway project was executed at an estimated cost of Rs 8,071 crore. This transformative achievement is expected to significantly enhance passenger and freight movement, stimulate socio-economic growth, and fulfil a long-standing aspiration of the people of Mizoram to see trains arriving in the heart of their capital, the official said.

Despite the tough terrain, commendable work has been carried out by the NFR. The official said that the Bairabi-Sairang new line railway project is an engineering marvel of the Indian Railways.

The project, which lies in mountainous terrain, consists of 48 tunnels, 55 major bridges, and 87 minor bridges. The total length of tunnels in this project is 12,853 meters.

The height of bridge number 196 is 104 metres, which is 42 metres taller than the Qutub Minar. The project also includes five Road Over Bridges and six Road Under Bridges.

--IANS

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