Visits occur before the anticipated municipal elections this year. Modi inaugurated two new Metro train lines and held groundbreaking ceremonies for many projects during his most recent visit, which took place on January 19. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Mumbai on Friday for the second time in less than a month to open two intra-city flyovers, two vehicular underpasses, and two Vande Bharat trains ahead of the anticipated 2019 Mumbai civic elections.
The prime minister will also continue to reach out to the Bohra community by opening a new campus of Aljamea-tus-Saifiyah, the top school for Dawoodi Bohras, in Mumbai’s Marol neighbourhood. On January 19, during his most recent visit to Mumbai, Modi held the groundbreaking ceremonies for a number of additional projects, including sewage treatment facilities and road concretization. He also opened two new Metro train lines.
The two new Vande Bharata Express trains, which will depart from Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus on Tuesday, will travel between Mumbai and Solapur and Mumbai and Shirdi. According to information from the state government, Modi will also digitally open a 3.8-kilometer elevated road from Kurla to Vakola, a 1.2-kilometer flyover between Kurla’s LBS Road and MTNL junction, a vehicle underpass at Kurar Village in Malad, and other projects that aim to relieve congestion in Mumbai’s opulent Bandra Kurla Complex business district.
Devendra Fadnavis, the deputy chief minister of Maharashtra, said in a press conference on Thursday in Mumbai, “We should be happy that the PM is coming so frequently to Mumbai. We hope that he keeps coming here more often. This means that Maharashtra and Mumbai are on the PM’s agenda. So I think there is no reason to look at this visit any differently.”
He added: “The two Vande Bharat trains being flagged off are very important for devotees. Many pilgrims go to Shirdi. Solapur district is a very spiritual one. There are places like Pandharpur and Akkalkot, which will now get very fast connectivity from Mumbai.” The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections are anticipated to take place this year. The former general body’s tenure expired on March 8 of last year, and since then, a state administrator has been in charge of the civic body.
The elections come after a split within the Shiv Sena last year. A group of rebel MLAs led by Eknath Sinde left the party and allied themselves with the BJP, which led to the dissolution of the Maha Vikas Aghadi government in the state, which was a coalition of the Sena, the Nationalist Congress Party, and the Congress. Shinde became the state’s chief minister as a partnership of the BJP and the Balasahebanchi Shiv Sena, led by Shinde.