With an eye on over 160 Assembly segments in eastern UP, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will start the revival of a fertiliser plant and lay foundation stone of the AIIMS in Gorakhpur – two demands which have been pending for over a decade.
The fertiliser unit used to produce Swastic Chaap Urea and was the second biggest industry in this region after North Eastern Railway. Its sudden closure in early 1990, rendered thousands of people jobless. The BJP feels that the revival of the plant could in turn revive its fortune in this region.
"By laying the foundation of the AIIMS and the revival of the fertilizer unit, the NDA government has fulfilled two promises which Modi had made in the run up to his 2014 election campaign. Both projects would certainly change the scenario of eastern UP,” statet BJP genral secretary Vijay Bahadur Pathak said.
Eastern UP has always been on the top drawer of the BJP’s agenda. The PM, who represents Varanasi, has opened a trade centre there. He then kicked-off the Ujjawal Scheme of distributing free lPG cylinders to BPl families from Ballia and now the revival of the fertiliser plant in Gorakhpur.
“Job and health are two basic needs of common people. In one stroke, the NDA Government will provide these two to the masses of eastern UP. This will send positive signals and the party leaders will have something positive to talk about,” Dr SP Pandey of Govind Ballabh Institute of Social Studies, lucknow said.
People of Gorakhpur are enthused about the revival of the fertilizer unit which was closed 26 years back. The unit will have sophisticated machines that will run on gas fuel to produce 3,850 tonnes of Urea per day against its earlier capacity of around 950 tonnes.
The Gorakhpur unit was established in 1969 and produced urea sold as 'Swastik Chhaap'. Spread on a sprawling 1,000 acres, the unit had a dream run until 1990 when an employee's death on duty triggered off employees' unrest and resulted in closure of the factory.
The unit is being revived at a cost of Rs 6,000 crore through a special purpose vehicle formed by NTPC, Coal India, Indian Oil and Fertiliser Corporation of India.
The AIIMS would be set up under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY) at an estimated cost of Rs 1,011 crore. "The new AIIMS will serve the dual purpose of providing super-specialty health care to the population while creating a large pool of doctors and health workers that will be available for primary and secondary level facilities being created under National Health Mission (NHM)," a release of the Union Health ministry government said.
The AIIMS will have a capacity of 750 beds and also include Emergency or Trauma and AYUSH sections. Natives of 14 districts of eastern UP and five districts of western Bihar will be benefited by the new AIIMS in Gorakhpur.
Meanwhile, the entire city has been turned into a fortress with security forces deployed in every nook and corner of the city. Besides, the elite SPG has taken over the security at the venues from where the PM will address people.
As per the PM’s schedule, a special flight will reach Gorakhpur airport at around 1100 hours on Friday and thereafter Modi will go to the Ferilizer ground by an IAF chopper. From there, the PM will move to Gorkhshnath temple by car and unveil the statue of Mahant Avaidhnath.
Modi will return to the Fertilizer ground at around 12.20 pm and lay the foundation stone of AIIMS and declare the revival of the fertilizer unit. Thereafter he will go to the rally ground and address the public. The PM is expected to leave for New Delhi around 1.50 pm.