PM to visit Tamil Nadu, Puducherry on Feb 25

Puducherry [India], February 23 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Tamil Nadu and Puducherry on February 25. He will inaugurate and lay the foundation stone of various development initiatives in Puducherry and lay the foundation stone of multiple infrastructure projects worth over Rs 12400 crores in Coimbatore.
A PMO release said Prime Minister will dedicate to the nation the Neyveli New Thermal Power Project.
It is a lignite based power plant designed for a power generation capacity of 1000 MW and has two units of 500 MW capacity each.
Built at a cost of about Rs 8000 crore, the pit head power plant will utilise lignite as fuel from the existing mines of Neyveli, which have sufficient lignite reserves for meeting the lifetime requirement of the project.
The plant has been designed for 100 per cent ash utilization. The power generated would benefit Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Puducherry, with Tamil Nadu having a major share of about 65 per cent.
Prime Minister will also dedicate to the nation 709 MW Solar Power Project of NLCIL, established over an area of about 2670 acres of land across the districts of Tirunelveli, Tuticorin, Ramanathapuram and Virudhunagar. The project has been set up at a cost of over Rs 3000 crore.
He will lay the foundation stone of the extension, renovation and modernisation of the Lower Bhavani Project System. The Bhavanisagar Dam and the canal systems were completed in 1955. The Lower Bhavani System comprises Lower Bhavani Project Canal System, Arakankottai and Thadapalli Channels, and Kalingarayan Channel. It irrigates over 2 lakh acres of land in Erode, Tiruppur and Karur districts.
The release said that extension, renovation and modernisation of the Lower Bhavani System has been taken up at a cost of Rs 934 crore under NABARD Infrastructure Development Assistance.
The main objective is to rehabilitate the existing irrigation structures in the system and increase the efficiency of the canals.
Apart from the lining of the canals, repair and reconstruction of 824 sluices, 176 drainages and 32 bridges will also be taken up.
Prime Minister will inaugurate the 8-laning of Korampallam Bridge and Rail Over Bridge (ROB) at V.O.Chidambaranar Port. It is one of the Major Ports in India.
He will lay the foundation stone for the design, supply, installation and commissioning of a 5MW grid-connected ground-based solar power plant at V.O.Chidambaranar Port.
The release said that Prime Minister will inaugurate the tenements constructed under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban) scheme.
He will also lay foundation stone for development of Integrated Command and Control Centers (ICCC) in nine Smart Cities including Coimbatore, Madurai, Salem, Thanjavur, Vellore, Tiruchirappalli, Tiruppur, Tirunelveli and Thoothukudi.
These ICCCs would be developed at a cost of about Rs 107 crore, and would act as a 24x7 support system, providing real-time smart solutions for quicker services, with the aim of integrating essential government services and enabling data-based decision making.
In Puducherry, the Prime Minister will lay the foundation stone for four-laning of 56 km Sattanathapuram - Nagapattinam package of Villupuram to Nagapattinam project covering Karaikal District.
The capital cost to be incurred in this project is about Rs. 2426 crore. He will also lay the foundation stone of the Medical College Building at Karaikal New Campus- Phase I, Karaikal District (JIPMER). The estimated cost of the project is Rs. 491 crore.
Prime Minister will lay the foundation stone for the development of Minor Port at Puducherry under Sagarmala Scheme. Estimated to be built at Rs 44 crore, it will provide connectivity to Chennai and facilitate cargo movement for industries in Puducherry.
He will also lay the foundation stone of Synthetic Athletic Track, Indira Gandhi Sports Complex, Puducherry. The existing 400 ms cinder track surface is old and outdated running surface. The project will cost around Rs. 7 crore.
Prime Minister will inaugurate the Blood Centre at Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER), Puducherry, which will function as a research laboratory and a training centre for the short- term and continuous blood bank personnel training in all aspects of transfusion. It has been set up at a cost of Rs 28 crore.
Prime Minister will inaugurate a 100-bed girls' hostel at Lawspet, Puducherry. It has been constructed for female athletes at a cost of about Rs 12 crore, under the aegis of Sports Authority of India.
He will also inaugurate the reconstructed Heritage Marie Building.
A landmark of the history of Puducherry, Marie Building was built by the French and it has now been rebuilt with the same building architecture, at a cost of about Rs. 15 crore, the release said.
Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry are likely to take place in April-May this year.