Hazaribagh, Feb. 13: With a week left for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's arrival to flag off the first train on the 80km Hazaribagh-Koderma lines from the new station, a team of chief secretary Rajiv Gauba, home secretary N.N. Pandey and DGP Rajeev Kumar today reviewed security and ongoing preparations.
District administration sources said that on February 20, Modi would arrive here in the afternoon from Ranchi and stay on for around 90 minutes to do the honours. In that time, he would also address the people of Hazaribagh for getting their due on the country's railway map.
Today, Gauba and the other senior bureaucrats reached Hazaribagh and headed straight to the station, where they made a recce of the preparations as well as the site from where Modi would address the gathering.
The team later went to Circuit House and met senior administrative and railway officials.
Briefly interacting with the media, Gauba said: "Preparations are going on properly."
"The Prime Minister will reach Ranchi at 3pm on February 20.
He will take an MI-17 helicopter to reach the helipad constructed at Hazaribagh station around 3.40. Then, he will flag off the eight-bogey train, which will be gaily decked up and arrive from Gomoh. He will also be escorted across the new station to see the Sohrai and Khobar wall paintings and address a public gathering," a railway official said on Modi's itinerary.
He added that work was underway on a war footing. Currently, workers installing LED lights and technical teams testing various systems.
"All agencies working now will hand over the station to us on February 16," the railway official said. "Then, the station, including the most important signal station, will be ready for actual movement of trains," he said.
"We were expecting a gathering of over 1.5 lakh. Security and other arrangements are being made accordingly," he said.
Stationmaster Arvind Lal claimed the Hazaribagh station was the best looking in all of Jharkhand and Bihar. "All the agencies are working to complete preparations before the Prime Minister's visit. February 20 is a historic day for Hazaribagh residents," he added.
