Amritsar: PM Narendra Modi will visit Punjab on January 5 to lay the foundation stone of PGI Satellite Centre in Ferozepur. This will be PM Modi's first visit to Punjab after withdrawing all three new agricultural laws. In fact, farmers started an agitation on June 5 last year after the agricultural law was issued. PM Modi has not visited Punjab since then. Now that the law has been repealed, farmers have lifted the dharna from the borders adjoining Delhi and returned home on December 11.

The PGI Satellite Centre is a Rs 450 crore project announced by the UPA government in 2013. However, in 2014, NDA came to power and the project then became a non-starter. Ferozepur city MLA Parminder Singh Pinki had claimed to have approved the project for his area from the then PM Manmohan Singh. He had alleged that earlier land acquisition for the project was delayed due to the Shi'ite-BJP government in Punjab and the BJP-led NDA government also delayed it after 2017.

PM Modi will now lay the foundation stone of this eight-year-old project. According to the previous announcement of former Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan, it will be a 400 bedded hospital.  The foundation stone of AIIMS Bathinda has also been laid in 2016 and is now operational.

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