Darjeeling: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will be inaugurating the longest river bridge of Bengal "Joyee" during her visit to North Bengal on Monday. The stage is all set for the 3-day visit to the plains of the Darjeeling district and Dooars.
The Chief Minister is scheduled to inaugurate the Joyee bridge and a Road Over Bridge to Gajoldoba virtually from the Uttarbanga Utsav inauguration programme on Monday.
Spanning over 2.7km on the river Teesta the bridge connects the Haldibari block with Mekhliganj in the Cooch Behar district. The bridge built at a cost of Rs 415 crores will reduce travel time drastically. At present the road distance between the two is 72 km with the roundabout road passing through Jalpaiguri and Maynaguri.
Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee is scheduled to land at the Bagdogra Airport at 2:10pm on Monday. From there she will head straight for the Uttar Banga Utsav inauguration programme at Baghajatin park in Siliguri.
"Along with a host of inauguration programmes, the Chief Minister will also confer Banga-Ratna awards to 9 recipients from the districts of North Bengal," stated Gautam Deb, Minister-in-charge of
Tourism. The nine include Doctor Shekhar Chakroborty and social activists Rongu Souria and CK Shreshtha of Siliguri; social activist Tapash Chakraborty of Balurghat; Environmentalist Raja Raut of Jalpaiguri; Journalist Moinuddin Chisti of Cooch Behar; Theater personality Parimal Trivedi of Malda and Academician Partha Kumar Sen from Islampur.
The Banga Ratna includes a cash award of Rs. 1 lakh along with a citation.
The Chief Minister will be staying at Kanyashree.
On February 2, she will be departing from Dabgram police lines by helicopter for Falakata. There she will attend a mass wedding porogramme of the tribal
community.
Around 400 couples are scheduled to tie the knot at the programme. Government aids will also be distributed by the Chief Minister from the programme. She is scheduled to halt at the Malangi Lodge in Hashimara.
On February 3 afternoon, Mamata Banerjee will address an organizational meeting and TMC rally at the Parade ground in Alipurduar. She will return to Dabgram police line by helicopter from there.
After spending the night at Kanyashree on the fringes of Siliguri, she will depart for Kolkata at 3:10 pm on
Thursday.