Johnson Cherian.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Chennai around 9.05 a.m. on Monday. He is expected to meet DMK leader M. Karunanidhi.
After his arrival, senior State BJP leaders and Tamil Nadu Ministers met him for a few minutes. After this, he was flown to INS Adyar in an MI -17 helicopter. From there, he reached the Centenary Hall of the University of Madras to participate in the platinum jubilee celebrations of Tamil newspaper Daily Thanthi.
From there, he is expected to head to Mayor Ramanathan Chettiar Centre, R.A. Puram to take part in the marriage function of the daughter of T.V. Somanathan, joint secretary in the Prime Minister’s office.
Initially he was supposed to return to the capital after this. However, BJP national general secretary Muralidhar Rao tweeted that the Prime Minister would meet Mr. Karunanidhi at the DMK chief’s Gopalapuram residence around 12.30 p.m. “As of now his departure is as per schedule around 1 p.m.”
Huge security cover
A total of 10, 000 policemen, including additional commissioners, deputy commissioners and assistant commissioners, are part of the security cover for Mr. Modi’s visit.
“As of now traffic on the Beach road will be blocked when the Prime minister’s convoy moves to R.A.Puram and back,”said a police officer.
Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) K. Periaiah said there won’t be any traffic holdup. As of now they have not been given instructions for traffic changes pertaining to the Prime Minister meeting Mr. Karunanidhi.
“Once we are informed, we will make necessary traffic arrangements on R.K. Salai too. We have deployed sufficient number of traffic policemen to ensure there is no traffic holdup. Vehicles will be stopped for few minutes only for the convoy to move. If there is any need for traffic diversion, we will do that smoothly and ensure that there is no inconvenience caused to motorists,” he said.
