President Droupadi Murmu laid foundation stones for projects including 3,000 model anganwadis and 100 schools and inaugurated two passenger trains in Assam besides offering puja at the Kamakhya Temple in Guwahati on Friday.
After arriving in Guwahati on Thursday, Murmu visited the IIT-Guwahati campus and inaugurated a super-computer facility called Param Kamrupa and called for the indigenisation of cutting-edge technology. She also launched a high-power active and passive component laboratory of SAMEER at the campus and inaugurated the Dhubri Medical College, among other projects.
On the second day of her Assam visit, Murmu visited the Srimanta Sankardeva Kalakshetra in the Panjabari area of the capital in the morning and laid foundation stones virtually for two state government projects and six centrally funded projects, among others. These included 3,000 new anganwadis across the state and 100 high schools for children of tea garden workers, projects under the Saubhagya mission, which aims to achieve universal electrification, a railway-managed petroleum depot of the Indian Oil Corporation at Moinarbond in Silchar.
Speaking at the event, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said the schools and anganwadis would ensure children’s mental and physical growth and well-being. “In addition to the 1,000 such centres inaugurated and 3,000 launched today, the number of such model anganwadis now stands at 4,000, and in coming years 2,000 more such centres will be launched. The state government aims to have 60,000 such model anganwadis, each built at a cost of Rs 25 lakh,” he said.
Later in the day, Murmu flagged off two train services—the Guwahati-Lumding-Guwahati Express train was extended to Shokhuvi in Nagaland at one end and to Mendipathar in Meghalaya at the other end—the first direct passenger train services between Nagaland and Meghalaya. She also launched two national highway Projects along with a cargo-cum-coach terminal in Guwahati.
Earlier in the day, Murmu offered prayers at the Kamakhya Temple accompanied by Governor Jagdish Mukhi, Sarma, Transport Minister Parimal Suklabaidya and Forest Minister Chandra Mohan Patowary.
Murmu departed for New Delhi from the Khanapara helipad in the afternoon, after the governor and the chief minister saw her off.
