Modi at Prashanti Kutiram jubilee in Bengaluru with Hosabale and Shivakumar; Pink Line ride and ₹15,600 crore of projects next

Prime Minister Narendra Modi reached Bengaluru on Friday morning, was received at HAL Airport by Governor Sudha Yadav and Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, and joined the Golden Jubilee of Prashanti Kutiram, the S-VYASA yoga campus, scheduled by the Prime Minister’s Office for 10:45 am. His next engagement is the ride on the new Namma Metro Pink Line at about 12:45 pm, followed by projects worth over ₹15,600 crore at about 1:15 pm. Our morning preview has the full schedule. This report covers what has happened so far.

Welcome at the airport

Yadav, Shivakumar and other dignitaries received Modi at HAL Airport. Shivakumar, who said on Thursday that Karnataka would welcome the Prime Minister respectfully and raise its demands, posted afterwards: “Warmly welcomed the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi avaru.” Modi had written on X the evening before: “Namaskara Karnataka! Looking forward to being in Bengaluru and Mysuru tomorrow.”

The jubilee at S-VYASA

The celebration marks 50 years of Prashanti Kutiram and, in the same programme, the birth centenary of H V Sheshadri, born in Bengaluru in 1926, who was the RSS Sarkaryavah from 1987 to 2000. RSS general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale was the distinguished guest. Governor Yadav, Shivakumar and Ahn Byeong-Gu, Mayor of Miryang City in South Korea, were guests of honour. The S-VYASA Registered Society is the organiser.

H R Nagendra, president of the society, said: “We are celebrating our Golden Jubilee celebration of the 50 years of our service in Prashanti Kutiram.” He pointed to the institution’s yoga research and a planned research laboratory called Ritambhara, and said a campus in Thiruvananthapuram was being launched to coincide with the Prime Minister’s visit. Prem Bhandari, chief advisor for international affairs, announced that 1,000 world-class artificial limbs will be given free in honour of Sheshadri’s centenary.

The Prime Minister’s Office schedule had Modi laying the foundation stone of the Golden Jubilee Administrative Block and launching the Thiruvananthapuram off-campus. The celebrations run until November 23 under the theme “Towards Viksit Bharat 2047”. When this report was written, no text of Modi’s address had been released by the Prime Minister’s Office or on his X account, so his remarks are not reported here. We will update when the text is out.

The Pink Line, which he rides next

The stretch Modi rides, from Tavarekere to IIM Bangalore station, is part of the section between Kalena Agrahara and Tavarekere, which the PMO release puts at about ₹3,470 crore. According to reports, the stretch is 7.2 km with six stations: Kalena Agrahara, Hulimavu, IIMB (Bilekahalli), J P Nagar 4th Phase, Jayadeva Hospital and Tavarekere. It takes the operational network beyond 100 km for the first time.

The full Pink Line runs 21.26 km with 18 stations, 12 of them underground, from Kalena Agrahara to Nagawara. The full corridor to Nagawara is expected by 2027. Reports say fares will run from ₹10 to ₹30 and that passenger service starts on Saturday, November 14, a day after the inauguration. The metro operator’s own notice is the thing to check before travelling.

The ₹15,600 crore package

At about 1:15 pm Modi inaugurates, dedicates or lays foundation stones for projects across urban transport, power, petroleum, waste and railways. The largest items in the PMO list are the Koppal-II and Gadag-II renewable power transmission scheme (about ₹4,450 crore), the Pink Line section, and a Davanagere-Chitradurga-Ballari transmission scheme of over ₹3,450 crore. He also dedicates the country’s largest underground LPG storage cavern at Mangaluru, and flags off the Bengaluru-Mangaluru-Madgaon Vande Bharat Express. GAIL’s compressed biogas plant at Haralakunte will get its foundation stone virtually; GAIL says Bengaluru’s municipal solid waste is a “huge problem” and the plant is meant to process about 300 tonnes a day.

Why it matters

For a Bengaluru commuter on the southern side, the Pink Line adds a direct link from J P Nagar and Jayadeva Hospital to the IIMB area. For the coastal belt, the finished electrification of the Bengaluru-Mangaluru line and the new Vande Bharat change the journey. For the state government, the visit is also a political occasion: Shivakumar has said he will raise drought relief and funds, and has a private meeting with Modi that is still to be scheduled in Delhi.

What happens next

Modi rides the Pink Line at about 12:45 pm, addresses a public gathering after the projects at about 1:15 pm, and opens the COSMOS-Mysuru planetarium at about 3:30 pm. On Saturday, November 14, he is expected to visit the Ambaji temple in Banaskantha, Gujarat. He then leaves for the ASEAN-India summit in Manila, which is covered in our earlier report.