Hours after PM Narendra Modi addressed the nation and the ISRO team from Bengaluru, and then inaugurated metro projects in Mumbai, he landed in Aurangabad, Maharashtra, to address a state-level Mahila Saksham Melava (Empowered Women’s Meet of Self Help Groups), inaugurate AURIC Business and Administrative Building and also dedicate DMIC AURIC City to the nation.  

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PM Modi in Maharashtra

Accompanied by Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis and his ministerial colleague Pankaja Munde, PM Modi inaugurated the 10,000-acre industrial smart city in Aurangabad, as a part of the Delhi-Mumbai industrial corridor. In his address to Mahila Saksham Melava, the Prime Minister highlighted the significance and fulfilment of Ujjwala Yojana which was introduced to provide free gas connections to people below the poverty line. He stated that the government had provided 8 crore free gas connections up till now and has reached its target 7 months ahead of the planned date. Modi handed over the 8th crore LPG connection to its beneficiary Ayesha Sheikh Rafiq from Aurangabad. 

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He inaugurated the Aurangabad Industrial City or AURIC City, the country's first greenfield industrial smart city and part of the upcoming Delhi-Mumbai industrial corridor which is expected to become host to over 200 multinational companies. The PM also inaugurated AURIC Hall, a six-storey building which will be both monitoring and administrative nerve centre for smart city, and launched the AURIC chatbot that will help anyone get their problems addressed by the city administration.

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Inaugurations in Mumbai 

Earlier in the day, after having started his morning in Bengaluru, the PM visited Mumbai first where he launched three metro lines for the city worth over Rs 19,000 crore, inaugurated the first Made in India coach to be delivered to the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation and also highlighted the dream of becoming a $5 trillion economy in his address. He also visited the 96-year-old Lokmanya Seva Sangh (LSS) in suburban Vile Parle to seek blessings before he travelled to Aurangabad. 

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The Prime Minister was also supposed to visit Nagpur as a part of his schedule which had to be postponed due to heavy rain forecast. Earlier on Saturday, the PM congratulated and appraised the efforts of ISRO for the Chandrayaan-2 mission, delivering an inspirational message following contact being lost with the Vikram lander of Chandrayaan-2 just 2.1 km above the lunar surface while it was attempting its landing.