In addition to speaking at a large event in Mangaluru today, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate and lay the groundwork for mechanisation and industrialization projects costing over 3,800 crore.
Modi will pay a brief visit to the port city in the afternoon after attending festivities in the neighbouring state of Kerala.
The project announcement is likely to help the Karnataka BJP, which is gearing up for Assembly elections next year and hoping to retake control of the state by capturing at least 150 of the 224 seats available.
The Prime Minister is expected to arrive at the Mangaluru International Airport around 1:30 pm, from whence he will take a helicopter to the New Mangaluru Port Authority (NMPA) facilities at Panambur.
He will travel to those locations to inaugurate or lay the groundwork for various projects before coming here to the Goldfinch city grounds to take part in a formal public celebration.
They claimed that in addition to the one lakh BJP workers who would be present, close to two lakh others would also be there.
According to reports, the district administration also sent invitations to the event to roughly 70,000 recipients of various social programmes run by the Union government.
Party members and recipients of government assistance are probably from different areas of the neighbouring Dakshina Kannada district and Dakshina Kannada itself.
The event is expected to be attended by the chief minister Basavaraj Bommai, the union ministers for ports, shipping, and waterways Sarbananda Sonowal, parliamentary affairs, coal, and mines Prahlad Joshi, the union minister of state for agriculture and farmers welfare Shobha Karandlaje, a number of state ministers, and BJP legislators and leaders. For the PM’s visit, police have put in place comprehensive security measures throughout the city.
The visit to Mangaluru in the Dakshina Kannada district is seen as significant in light of recent “communal” murders, including that of BJP activist Praveen Nettar close by, which sparked widespread protests and a wave of resignations by some of its Yuva Morcha members and employees at various locations throughout Karnataka, accusing the state government of failing to protect the lives of Hindu “karyakartas.”
Similar sentiments had also been aired by a number of Hindutva organisations and ideologues toward the administration. The visit also takes place at a time when the BJP government is dealing with allegations of “40% commission” in public works made by the state contractors’ association, as well as allegations of irregularities in various departments made by various organisations and opposition parties, particularly the Congress.
The New Mangalore Port Authority is undertaking a project worth over 280 crore rupees to mechanise Berth No. 14 for the handling of containers and other cargo. PM Modi will also lay the cornerstone for five projects totaling almost 1,000 crore rupees that the port is undertaking.
Additionally, he will dedicate two projects by Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited, the Sea Water Desalination Plant and the BS VI Upgradation Project, each valued at 1,830 crore and 680 crore respectively.
