Chandrayaan-3: PM Narendra Modi to visit Bengaluru on Saturday to meet ISRO team, BJP plans rousing welcome

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will arrive in Bengaluru on Saturday morning to personally meet with the team of scientists at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and share their joy on the stunning success of the Chandrayaan-3 lunar mission.

The PM is in Johannesburg as part of the BRICS summit and will fly directly from there to Bengaluru en route to Delhi. He watched the spacecraft’s descent on screen from the South African city and made a statement soon after the mission’s success was announced.

Modi personally called ISRO director S Somanath and conveyed his happiness to the team of scientists who diligently worked on the project after the previous mission failed four years ago.


“The PM congratulated all of us and said that he would like to personally come down and congratulate each one of us,” Somanath said.

The PM is expected to land at the HAL airport at 5.30 am and will spend two hours at the ISRO centre in Peenya from 8 am, sources said.

The BJP has planned a rousing welcome to the PM at HAL and outside the ISRO facility. BJP state unit president Nalinkumar Kateel held a meeting to review the preparations to give a grand reception to the PM. About 25,000 people each are expected to gather at the HAL airport and near the ISRO centre in Peenya on Saturday, with the Indian flag in hand, a BJP leader said.

The party has not organized any road show, he clarified, but added that the PM will greet the people in a brief appearance on the road. Police are planning for people to line up on both sides of the roads, as they did during the election campaign road shows.

CM FELICITATES ISRO CHIEF:
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Thursday visited the ISRO and felicitated Somanath and his team of scientists and engineers. He announced a grand official felicitation event for the ISRO team soon in Bengaluru. The government will honour about 500 scientists, including the ISRO chairman, he said, while adding that his government will extend all support to the space agency’s initiatives.

Soon after the news of the success of the mission broke out on Wednesday evening, Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar visited ISRO offices and honoured the chairman and his team of scientists.