PM Modi to dedicate projects over Rs 3,650-cr in Himachal today

The Prime Minister will inaugurate AIIMS Bilaspur at around 11:30 am.

"I am glad that the AIIMS Bilaspur will be dedicated to the nation. It will ensure better healthcare facilities for people in the region.

"Development works worth over Rs. 3650 crore spread across various sectors will either be inaugurated or their foundation stones would be laid," the Prime Minister said in a tweet.

The hospital, whose foundational stone was also laid by him in Oct 2017, is being established under the Central sector scheme Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana.

Constructed at a cost of more than Rs 1470 crore, AIIMS Bilaspur is a state-of-the-art hospital with 18 speciality and 17 super speciality departments, 18 modular operation theaters, 750 beds with 64 ICU beds.

Spread over 247 acres, the hospital is equipped with 24 hours emergency and dialysis facilities, modern diagnostic machines like ultrasonography, CT scan, MRI etc, Amrit Pharmacy and Jan Aushadhi Kendra and also a 30 bedded AYUSH block, the PMO added.

The Hospital has also set up the Centre for Digital Health to provide health services in the tribal and inaccessible tribal areas of Himachal Pradesh.

Also, specialist health services will be provided by the hospital through health camps in the inaccessible tribal and high Himalayan regions like Kaza, Saluni, and Keylong.

The hospital will admit 100 students for MBBS Course and 60 students for nursing courses every year.

The Prime Minister will later reach Luhnu Ground of Bilaspur at around 12:45 PM, where he will inaugurate and lay the foundation stone of multiple development projects and also address a public function.

Modi will lay the foundation stone of around 31 km long project for four laning of the National Highway from Pinjore to Nalagarh on NH-105, worth over Rs 1690 crore.

The project road is a major connecting link for the traffic from Ambala, Chandigarh, Panchkula and Solan /Shimla going towards Bilaspur, Mandi and Manali. About 18 km stretch of this four-lane national highway falls under Himachal Pradesh and the remaining portion falls in Haryana, the PMO said.

This highway will ensure better transport facilities in Nalagarh-Baddi, the industrial hub of Himachal Pradesh, and will also give a fillip to further industrial development in the region. It will also boost tourism in the state.

The Prime Minister will lay the foundation stone of the Medical Device Park at Nalagarh, which will be built at a cost of about Rs 350 crore.

MoUs of more than Rs 800 crore have already been signed for setting up industries in this Medical Device Park.

The PMO said that the project will significantly enhance employment opportunities in the region.

The Prime Minister will also inaugurate the Government Hydro Engineering College at Bandla.

Costing about Rs 140 crore, the college will help make available trained manpower for hydro power projects, in which Himachal Pradesh is one of the leading states. It will help in upskilling the youth and providing ample job opportunities in the hydro power sector, the PMO said.

The Prime Minister will reach the Dhalpur Ground of Kullu at around 3:15 pm, where he will participate in Kullu Dussehra celebrations.

The International Kullu Dussehra Festival will be celebrated from Oct 5 to 11 at Dhalpur Ground of Kullu.

The Festival is unique in the sense that it is the congregation of more than 300 Deities of the Valley.

On the first day of the Festival, the Deities in their well decorated palanquins pay their obeisance at the temple of the Chief Deity Bhagwan Raghunath Ji and then proceed to the Dhalpur Ground.

Modi will witness this divine Rath Yatra and the grand assembly of the Deities in the historic Kullu Dussehra celebrations.

It will be the first time ever that the Prime Minister of the country is participating in the Kullu Dussehra celebrations.