PM Modi inaugurates Smriti Van memorial for 2001 Bhuj earthquake victims

Gandhinagar, Aug 28: Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Veer Balak Memorial in Anjar town of Kutch in Gujarat on Sunday. During January 26, 2001, earthquake in Gujarat, 185 school children and 20 teachers were buried under the rubble of nearby buildings while attending a rally in Anjar town of Kutch.

The PM is scheduled to address a gathering in Bhuj town of Kutch district. From the same venue, he will virtually inaugurate or perform ground-breaking ceremonies for nearly 10 projects in the region, said a state government release on Thursday.

Around 100 relatives of these children and teachers have been invited for the function.

The memorial also has a museum consisting of five sections displaying photographs of the victims, articles used by the children when they were alive, a simulator to make people feel an earthquake and a section to make members of the public aware about the scientific aspects of earthquakes, said the release.

The memorial has names and photographs of all the school students and teachers who died, written on a wall.

According to the state government, nearly 13,000 people had died across the state in the earthquake.

At around 5:00 pm, Prime Minister will address a programme in Gandhinagar, marking the commemoration of 40 years of Suzuki in India.

At the Suzuki programme, Modi will also lay the foundation stones of two key projects of the Suzuki Group in India- the Suzuki Motor Gujarat Electric Vehicle Battery Manufacturing Facility in Hansalpur in Gujarat and its upcoming vehicle manufacturing facility in Kharkhoda in Haryana- the PMO said.

The facility in Hansalpur will be set up with an investment of around Rs 7,300 crore to manufacture advance chemistry cell batteries for electric vehicles.

The vehicle manufacturing facility in Kharkhoda will have the potential to manufacture 10 lakh passenger vehicles per year, making it one of the largest passenger vehicle manufacturing facilities at a single site in the world.

The first phase of the project will be set up with an investment of over Rs 11,000 crore.