Narendra Modi in Ahmedabad updates: PM to travel in seaplane from Sabarmati river to Dharoi dam, will visit Ambaji temple

On Tuesday Prime Minister Narendra Modi will travel in a seaplane from Sabarmati river in the city to Dharoi dam in Mehsana district.

His return journey would also be by the same sea-plane.

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

"Tomorrow for the first time in the history of the country a sea-plane will land on the Sabarmati river. I will go to Ambaji in the sea-plane after landing in Dharoi dam and come back," Modi announced at a poll rally here.

"Our party had planned my road show tomorrow. However, the administration has not given permission and I had time so I decided to go to Ambaji in the sea-plane," Modi said. "We cannot have airports everywhere, so our government has planned to have these sea-planes," Modi said.

File image of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. AP

The roadshows of both Modi and Congress president-elect Rahul Gandhi, the last day of the campaigning for Gujarat polls, stood cancelled after the Ahmedabad Police denied permission for the events. The police cited congested roads and communally sensitive areas that fall enroute as the reason. The move comes in the backdrop of inputs gathered by central intelligence agencies that a "lone wolf" may try to target roadshows of "big political leaders" during the campaigning for the upcoming elections.

Chief Minister Vijay Rupani said 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 said.

With inputs from PTI

Click here for detailed coverage of Gujarat Assembly Election 2017