Kalam arrives on 2-day visit to K'taka

Bangalore, Aug 20 (UNI) President A P J Abdul Kalam arrived here tonight on a two-day visit to Karnataka.

Mr Kalam, who arrived by a special aircraft, was received at the airport by Governor T N Chaturvedi, Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy, his Deputy B S Yediyurappa and other officials. He then drove away to the Raj Bhavan for the overnight stay.

Tomorrow, the President would be attending the wedding of the son of Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, Associate Director Balakrishnan. Later in the day, he would inaugurate a national seminar on ''Women: Science and Technology,'' organised by the Bangalore University. He would also interact with students from the Agastya International Foundation.

In the afternoon the President would leave for the Bidar Air Force Base, from where he would fly in a helicopter to the Alamatti Dam site in Bijapur district to dedicate the Upper Krishna Project to the nation. He would then visit the Dam built at a cost of Rs 9,500 crore.

The dam, built across river Krishna, would be named after late Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri. Former Prime Ministers A B Vajpayee and H D Deve Gowda would accompany the President to Alamatti.

After the function, the President would fly back to Bidar and from there return to New Delhi by the special aircraft.

UNI RS RG RKN0019