By Our Correspondent
NEW DELHI/BHUBANESWAR: Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi will be conferred Lokmanya Tilak National Award. The Award was constituted by Tilak Smarak Mandir Trust in 1983, to honour the legacy of Lokmanya Tilak. The award is given to people who have worked for the progress and development of nation and whose contribution can only be looked upon as remarkable and extraordinary. It is presented every year on the 1st of August – Lokmanya Tilak’s death anniversary.
PM Modi will become the 41st recipient of the award. It has previously been presented to luminaries such as late Dr Shankar Dayal Sharma, late Pranab Mukherjee, late Atal Bihari Vajpayee, late Indira Gandhi, Dr Manmohan Singh, NR Narayana Murthy, Dr E Sreedharan among others.
Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi will visit Pune, Maharashtra on 1st August. At around 11 AM, Prime Minister will perform Darshan and Pooja at Dagdusheth Mandir. Thereafter, at 12:45 PM, Prime Minister will flag off metro trains and inaugurate and lay the foundation stone of various development projects.
Prime Minister will flag off Metro trains marking inauguration of services on completed sections of the two corridors of Pune Metro Phase I. These sections are from Phugewadi station to Civil Court station and Garware College station to Ruby Hall Clinic station. Foundation Stone of the project was also laid by the Prime Minister in 2016. The new sections will connect important places of the Pune city like Shivaji Nagar, Civil Court, Pune Municipal Corporation office, Pune RTO and Pune Railway Station. The inauguration is an important step towards realising the vision of the Prime Minister to provide the citizens with modern and environment-friendly mass rapid urban transport systems across the country.
The design of some of the metro stations on the route draws inspiration from Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. The Chhatrapati Sambhaji Udyan Metro Station and Deccan Gymkhana metro stations have a unique design resembling the headgear worn by soldiers of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj – also known as “Mavala Pagadi.” The Shivaji Nagar underground Metro station has a distinctive design which reminds of the forts built by Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.
Another unique feature is that the Civil Court metro station is one of the deepest metro stations in the country, having the deepest point at 33.1 m. The station roof is made in such a manner that direct sunlight falls on the platform.
Prime Minister will inaugurate the Waste to Energy Plant under Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC). Developed at a cost of about Rs 300 crores, it will use up about 2.5 lakh MT of waste annually to produce electricity.
Moving ahead towards the mission of achieving Housing for All, Prime Minister will handover more than 1280 houses constructed under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana by PCMC. He will also handover more than 2650 PMAY houses constructed by Pune Municipal Corporation. Further, Prime Minister will also lay the foundation stone of around 1190 PMAY houses to be constructed by PCMC, and of over 6400 houses constructed by Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority.
