New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch several projects at Surat and Dandi on his Gujarat visit on Wednesday.

During the visit, the Prime Minister will lay the Foundation Stone for the extension of the terminal building at Surat airport. The terminal building is being constructed at a cost of Rs 354 crore with an area of over 25,500 square metre. It will be an eco-friendly sustainable building, using solar energy and LED lighting.

Once completed, it will have a peak handling capacity of over 1,800 passengers. Surat airport is the third busiest airport in Gujarat after Ahmedabad and Vadodara, in terms of both aircraft movements and passenger traffic.

Expansion of infrastructure for development has been one of the top priorities of the government. Several initiatives have been undertaken in various sectors and the aviation sector is among them.

In Gujarat, civil aviation infrastructure has not only been strengthened but air connectivity has been enhanced as well. These include connecting Kandla to Mumbai and Porbandar to Ahmedabad and Mumbai through UDAN scheme. The development of Greenfield airport at Hirasar, Rajkot, new ATC tower/technical block at Ahmedabad and Vadodara are among them.

In Surat, the PM will interact with the youth at the New India Youth conclave. He will also inaugurate Smt Rasilaben Sevantilal Shah Venus Hospital and visit the facilities there.

The Prime Minister’s next destination will be Dandi in Navsari district of Gujarat. Here, he will dedicate the National Salt Satyagraha Memorial to the nation, on Bapu’s death anniversary. The memorial has statues of Mahatma Gandhi and 80 satyagrahis who had marched with him during the historic Dandi salt march.

The memorial also has 24-narrative murals depicting various events and stories from the historic 1930 Salt March. The PM will walk through the memorial and address a public meeting.

The Salt satyagraha march, also known as the Dandi March of 1930 has been a landmark event in the history of India’s freedom struggle. It was on this day, as a part of the civil disobedience movement against the British rule, 80 satyagrahis led by Gandhi marched 241-miles from Sabarmati Ashram, Ahmedabad to the coastal village of Dandi and made salt from seawater, breaking the salt law imposed by the British.

It will be the second visit of the Prime Minister to Gujarat this month. Prime Minister Modi earlier visited Surat on January 19 to dedicate the Armoured System Complex at Hazira. He attended the Vibrant Gujarat summit on January 17 and 18 at Gandhinagar in Gujarat.