Narendra Modi joins a host of tourists to enjoy moonlit night in the vast wilderness of white sands in Kutch during Rann Utsav
Ahmedabad, Sunday: Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi joined a host of tourists from different parts of India and abroad to enjoy an overnight stay, under a moonlit sky at the tent city of Dhordo with nip in the air, in the vast wilderness of silky white sand in Kutch, to mark the Rann Utsav.
Mr. Modi reached the tent city on Saturday evening to watch a scarlet sun set in the west to rise at its vermillion best in the east on Sunday morning, the space filled up by the full moon’s journey from the east to the west, interspersed by about an hour’s full lunar eclipse.
This year’s Rann Utsav had an added attraction of lunar eclipse, amounting to watching Purnima fading into Amavas and back to Purnima, through umbra and penumbra within spanning a few hours at the tent city, far from the maddening crowd, where one could virtually hear silence.
Mr. Modi began his Saturday evening inaugurating a Camel Show of the Border Security Force (BSF), followed it up by a variety entertainment programme depicting the history of Indian since the Mahabharat times, presented by the local folk artists of the Kutch.
Speaking on the occasion, the Chief Minister expressed immense pleasure at an exponential growth of tourists in Kutch district to 60,000 within a year of starting the Rann Utsav. There used to be no footfall in this region in the past. It became a centre of international tourism centre now. The Shyamaji Krishna Verma Memorial, opened at Mandvi to commemorate the revolutionary guru, has been visited by 3.25-lakh people. He was happy that the district witnessed an identical growth in the industries, too.Rich in long seacoast, hills, sand and the Rann, he said, Kutch has become a pride part of Vibrant Gujarat.
Mr. Modi thanked the people of Kutch and the district administration and the BSF for making a success of the Rann Utsav.
He woke up early, accompanied tourists, and walked miles across the unending stretch of sand till he felt retiring to the tent before the daybreak. He also took a ride in Balloon Safari, introduced for the first time as part of the Utsav.
Prominent among those accompanied Mr. Modi included Ministers of State Vasanbhai Ahir and Jitubhai Sukhadia, Tourism Corporation Chairman Kamlesh Patel, legislators, Principal Secretary Vipul Mittra and Secretary J.P. Gupta.
