Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to undertake a two-hour visit to Odisha on October 25 to inaugurate the Reserve Bank of India’s Rs 169-crore data centre on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar, officials said on Friday.
PM Modi is scheduled to land at Biju Patnaik International Airport here around 4.30 pm aboard a special Indian Air Force aircraft, according to the tentative itinerary shared by the chief secretary’s office. He is likely to spend an hour at the RBI’s data centre and return to Bhubaneswar by road before departing the state around 6.30 pm, according to the itinerary.
“This will be the PM’s ninth visit to Odisha after the formation of the BJP government in the state in 2024,” the party’s state vice-president Jatin Mohanty said. He said the RBI’s data centre at Jatni will be the second of its kind after one in Navi Mumbai. The BJP leader said the project would boost Odisha’s digital infrastructure and lead to the state’s emergence as a technology and electronics manufacturing destination. “The PM had earlier allocated semiconductor units for Odisha and is now strengthening the digital footprint in the state,” Mohanty said. “The data centre is designed to strengthen data management, disaster recovery, cybersecurity, and business continuity for core functions such as currency management, payment and settlement systems, and regulatory operations,” an official said.
