Srinagar: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Jammu & Kashmir on Sunday, for the first time after two years after the centre scrapped Special Status to J & K and divided it into two Union Territories. He will hold his first public event in Jammu and Kashmir.

Jammu region BJP leaders organized a warm welcome to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Palli with tens of thousands waiting to welcome Modi. J & K police arranged tight security for PM Modi’s visit. PM Modi will preside over a ceremony to mark Panchayati Raj, a day that commemorates grassroots democracy.

Speaking to the media persons J & K Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha on this event said that this event will see PM Modi lead the region into a new era of development. This would be PM Modi’s first formal public appearance in Jammu and Kashmir since August 2019, although PM Modi has made informal visits to celebrate festivals with troops stationed along the LoC.

Modi will inaugurate and lay the foundation stones of development projects worth over ₹ 20,000 crore, including the opening of Banihal-Qazigund road tunnel for all-weather connectivity between the two regions of the Union Territory. PMO in a statement said that he will celebrate National Panchayati Raj Day and address Gram Sabhas across the country. Seeking to develop and rejuvenate 75 water bodies in every district of the country, PM Modi will launch an initiative named Amrit Sarovar, said PMO statement.

The Banihal-Qazigund road tunnel, built at a cost of over ₹ 3,100 crore, is 8.45kms long and it will reduce the road distance between Banihal and Qazigund by 16 km and cut travel time by around one-and-a-half hours. It is a twin-tube tunnel, one for each direction of travel and the tubes are interconnected by a cross passage every 500 metres for maintenance and emergency evacuation.

PM Modi will lay the foundation stones of Ratle and Kwar hydroelectric projects, a 850 megawatt facility to be constructed on the Chenab river in Kishtwar at a cost of around ₹ 5,300 crore. He will also lay the foundation stone for the 540 megawatt Kwar hydroelectric project to be build on the same river at a cost of over ₹ 4,500 crore. Interestingly, its second time foundation stone of Ratle project is being laid. In 2013, then PM Manmohan Singh had laid foundation stone of the project.