PM to visit Isro, BJP plans rousing welcome

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will arrive in Bengaluru on Saturday morning to personally meet the team of scientists at Isro and share their joy on the stunning success of the Chandrayaan-3 lunar mission.

The prime minister 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. Modi 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.