New Delhi, 14 February (H.S.): Prime Minister Narendra Modi will embark on a transformative visit to Assam today on Saturday, commencing with a landmark landing at the region's inaugural Emergency Landing Facility (ELF) on Moran Bypass in Dibrugarh at approximately 10:30 AM, where he will witness an exhilarating aerial extravaganza featuring fighter jets, transport aircraft, and helicopters orchestrated by the Indian Air Force.

This pioneering ELF—meticulously engineered in tandem with the IAF—represents a dual-use bulwark accommodating fighters up to 40 tonnes and transports up to 74 tonnes maximum takeoff weight, poised to expedite exigency deployments amid Northeast calamities or exigencies, thereby fortifying strategic sinews and humanitarian responsiveness.

Transitioning to Guwahati,PM Modi will, at around 1:00 PM, inaugurate the resplendent Kumar Bhaskar Varma Setu—a Rs 3,030 crore, 6-lane extradosed prestressed concrete paragon spanning the Brahmaputra's 1.24-kilometre maw as Northeast India's vanguard of its genre—interlinking Guwahati and North Guwahati while compressing erstwhile 45-60 minute odysseys via Saraighat Bridge or ferries to a mere seven minutes.

Earmarked for pedestrian promenade post-unveiling—with vehicular ingress slated for March 1-2—this seismically resilient marvel, honoring 7th-century Kamarupa sovereign Kumar Bhaskar Varman, integrates friction pendulum base isolation, high-durability stay cables, and a Bridge Health Monitoring System (BHMS) for perpetual vigilance, obviating monsoon inundations or wintry miasmas.

At 1:30 PM from Lachit Ghat,PM Modi will commission sundry Rs 5,450 crore initiatives encompassing the avant-garde National Data Centre at Amingaon—boasting 8.5 MW sanctioned load and 10 kW per rack for mission-critical e-governance and Digital India-aligned disaster recovery—and the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Guwahati, catalyzing managerial erudition across the Ashtalakshmi expanse.

Crowning the itinerary, PM Modi will dispatch 225 electric buses under the PM-eBus Sewa edict—100 for Guwahati, 50 each for Nagpur and Bhavnagar, 25 for Chandigarh—poised to greenify urban transit for over 50 lakh denizens, ameliorating congestion, emissions, and livability pursuant to Act East's accelerando.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar