PM Modi to stay at Kaziranga National Park during Assam visit

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to stay at the Kaziranga National Park and undertake a jungle safari during his two-day visit to Assam from March 8, an official said on Wednesday.

Modi is scheduled to arrive at Kaziranga in the evening of March 8 and stay the night, before taking a safari inside the park the next morning and then leave for Jorhat to attend a series of programmes.

Assam Forest and Environment Minister Chandra Mohan Patowary visited the Kaziranga National Park on Tuesday and held a series of meetings with senior officials, including Chief Secretary Paban Borthakur and Director General of Police G P Singh, to finalise arrangements for the prime minister’s visit.

The authorities have made arrangements for both jeep and elephant safaris inside the park, the official said.

Kaziranga was declared a national park in February 1974 and is celebrating the golden jubilee of the event this year.

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On March 9, the prime minister is scheduled to unveil the over 125-ft-high bronze statue of legendary Ahom general Lachit Barphukan at Jorhat.

He is also scheduled to lay the foundation stone of Sivasagar Medical College, participate in the ‘Griha Pravesh’ (house-warming) ceremony for 5.5 lakh homes constructed under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) and address a public meeting at Meleng Meteli Pothar in Jorhat.

Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had on February 15 visited the statue of Lachit Barphukan, located at Ahom general’s ‘maidam’ (memorial), at Lahdoigarh in Hollongapar area of the district.

Sarma had said that the area will be developed as a Lachit Barphukan Cultural Centre and two museums — one on the Ahom era and the other a war museum with artefacts of that period will also be set up in the precincts.

Barphukan is famed in Assam’s history for thwarting the Mughal Army in the 1671 naval ‘Battle of Saraighat’ on River Brahmaputra.