The airport will serve nearby districts of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar and is an important step in boosting investment and employment opportunities in the region.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the Kushinagar International Airport in Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday at around 10 am, after which the first flight will land at the airport from Colombo, carrying a delegation of over 100 Buddhist monks and dignitaries. Prime Minister Modi will also launch various development projects during his visit to poll-bound Uttar Pradesh.
Built at an estimated cost of Rs 260 crore, the Kushinagar Airport will facilitate domestic and international pilgrims to visit the ’mahaparinirvana’ site of Lord Buddha and is an endeavour to connect the Buddhist pilgrimage holy sites around the world, it added. The airport will serve nearby districts of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar and is an important step in boosting investment and employment opportunities in the region.
The Prime Minister will also participate in an event marking Abhidhamma Day at the Mahaparinirvana Temple in Kushinagar before attending a public function to inaugurate and lay the foundation stone of various development projects, the PMO said. After offering prayers to the reclining statue of Lord Buddha there, PM Modi will plant a Bodhi tree sapling. Abhidhamma Day symbolises the end of a three-month rainy retreat - Varshavaas or Vassa - for Buddhist monks, during which they stay at one place and pray, an official statement said.
Kushinagar is the place where Gautam Buddha attained Mahaparinirvana. It is an international Buddhist pilgrimage centre, the centre point of the Buddhist circuit, which consists of other sites at Lumbini, Sarnath and Gaya.
The event will be attended by monks from Sri Lanka, Thailand, Myanmar, South Korea, Nepal, Bhutan, and Cambodia, and ambassadors of many countries. According to the Ministry of Civil Aviation Uttar Pradesh Governor Anandiben Patel, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Union Minister for Civil Aviation Jyotiraditya Scindia will also be present at the inauguration among others.