In his first visit since the Lok Sabha elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Bihar on June 19 to inaugurate the new campus of Nalanda University. Nalanda is the prime minister’s home district, and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is also expected to attend the ceremony.
The university has been conceived as a joint collaboration between India and the East Asia Summit (EAS) countries. The inauguration ceremony will be attended by several eminent personalities, including representatives from 17 countries, according to a press release.
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The university has a long history: the original Nalanda University, founded about 1,600 years ago, is believed to be one of the world’s first residential universities. In 2016, the ruins of Nalanda were registered as a United Nations Heritage Site.
According to information received from Bihar state authorities, PM Modi will fly from Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh to Gaya airport in the state and then fly from Gaya to Nalanda district. He will reach the venue by road at the Sushma Swaraj Auditorium and formally inaugurate the event. He will take part in a one-and-a-half hour programme and interact with students from India and abroad.
The campus has two academic blocks with a total seating capacity of about 1,900. There are two 300-seat auditoriums and a student hostel with a capacity of about 550 students. Other facilities include an international centre, an amphitheatre that can accommodate up to 2,000 people, a faculty club and a sports complex.
It is also a self-sustaining, “net-zero” green campus with a solar power plant, domestic and drinking water treatment plants, a water recycling facility that reuses wastewater, a 100-acre water body, and many other eco-friendly facilities.
Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) is a key member of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government at the Centre after the Bharatiya Janata Party fell short of a majority. JD(U) leaders are looking forward to the Prime Minister’s visit and hope he will make some important announcements for Bihar.
One of the long-pending issues for Bihar is getting special category status recognised.
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