Gujarat polls 2017: For the first time, PM Narendra Modi to land in a sea-plane on Sabarmati River shortly

Ahmedabad: Hours after being denied permission by the authorities to conduct a roadshow in Ahmedabad, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will now be landing on the Sabarmati river in a sea-plane at 9.30 am on Tuesday.

After landing, he will go to the Dharoi dam and offer prayers at Ambaji Temple. 

The PM took to Twitter yesterday to announce his schedule for Gujarat.

Tomorrow at 9:30 AM I will travel from Sabarmati River in Ahmedabad to Dharoi Dam via sea plane. After that will offer prayers to Maa Amba at Ambaji. With air, roads & rail connectivity, our Government is making efforts for harnessing waterways. All this is for 125 crore Indians! — Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) December 11, 2017

The Prime Minister was speaking of a sea-plane, which he said, would fly for the first time in India.

"The Congress can't even imagine development work like this," he said.

He added that as many as 106 such water-ways had been planned in the country.

Minutes later, at 10 pm, BJP national president Amit Shah called a one-line press conference at the BJP`s specially created election media centre to make the same announcement.

"This is a scheduled event which will happen on time at 9.30 am on Tuesday,'' he said.

''Since administration asked not to conduct roadshow of PM Modi on 12th, he’ll go to Ambaji Mata temple tomorrow. It’ll be done uniquely. To promote Gujarat tourism, he’ll take off in a sea-plane from Sabarmati riverfront, land in Dharoi dam’s pond and will go to the temple by road,” he added.

Referring to PM Modi’s visit, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani said that this is for the first time in the history of the country that a sea-plane will land on a water body and that will be the Sabarmati river. 

“Prime Minister Narendra Modi will travel in the plane from here to Dharoi. He will visit Ambaji temple and come back from Dharoi to Sabarmati in the same plane,” Rupani stated.

Earlier in the day, Ahmedabad Police Commissioner AK Singh had denied permission to both Rahul Gandhi and Narendra Modi, citing reasons of traffic congestion and some main markets and old city areas, which are communally sensitive and have narrow roads, falling on the routes of their scheduled roadshows.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on Monday defended his government's flagship initiatives and said India has made remarkable strides and “the world is realising it”.

Accusing the Congress of trying to derail Gujarat's development journey, he said the party made huge money in the name of 'vikas' (development).

He attacked the Congress for saying that the Gujarat's development model has failed and the people were fooled to believe it worked.

Modi said Gujarat has two development engines: One in Gandhinagar and the other in Delhi.

The Swachh Bharat Mission and the Pragati Initiative, he said, have helped the ordinary citizens more than the rich in the country.

(With inputs from agencies)