 "Prime Minister Modi to visit Telangana on Sunday")
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is arriving at Gajwel in the neighboring Medak district on his maiden visit to Telangana on Sunday to lay the foundation stones for six state and Central government projects, many of them remotely, in the state.
Gajwel assembly constituency is represented by Chief Minister K Chandrasekhara Rao (KCR). The chief minister had invited the Prime Minister specially to launch Mission Bhagiratha, a massive piped water project taken up by the state government with an objective to provide treated water to all the households in Telangana by the year 2019.
The Prime Minister will unveil a pylon and also turn a tap in a village marking the launch of Mission Bhagiratha. He will lay the foundation stone for a 4,000 Mw thermal power project being set up in two phases by NTPC and also dedicate to the nation a 1,200 Mw thermal power project recently set up by the Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL). The state and the Centre holds 51 per cent and 49 per cent shareholding in this Nizam-era coal mining company.
The other projects lined up for the Prime Minister's visit include laying of foundation stones for Kothapalli-Manoharabad railway line and for the revival of an urea plant.
Modi visited the region prior to the formation of the new Telangana state. And this is his first visit to the new state as the Prime Minister.
The visit comes after chief minister Rao made serious efforts to forge a cordial relationship with the Centre and with the Prime Minister at a personal level following a gap created between the two due to Rao's critical stand on decisions such as the issuance of an Ordinance to merge 11 mandals of Telangana with Andhra Pradesh to facilitate Polavaram Irrigation Project in Andhra Pradesh among other things related to the state.
Later on, the state government has backed all the major initiatives of Modi Government, including the recent GST Bill.
Modi's visit was also likely to set in motion the Bharatiya Janata Party's ambitious agenda to become an alternative to the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) in the 2019 elections as announced by BJP President Amit Shah earlier this year.
After addressing a public rally at Gajwel, the Prime Minister is scheduled to speak at BJP workers meeting in Hyderabad before leaving for Delhi on the same day.