PM Narendra Modi reaches Kedarnath temple, to unveil Adi Shankaracharya statue

Prime Minister Narendra Modi landed at the Dehradun airport at 7.30am where he was welcomed by chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, Governor Lt Gen Gurmit Singh (retired) and other state dignitaries

Prime Minister Narendra Modi reached the Kedarnath temple in Uttarakhand on Friday morning, where he will unveil a 12-foot statue of Adi Shankaracharya and flag off reconstruction work worth over ₹200 crore at the temple premises.

PM Narendra Modi is welcomed by CM Pushkar Singh Dhami, Governor Lt Gen Gurmit Singh (retired) and other state dignitaries at Dehradun airport in Uttarakhand on Friday morning. (HT photo)

PM Narendra Modi landed at the Dehradun airport at around 7.30am where he was welcomed by chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, Governor Lt Gen Gurmit Singh (retired) and other state dignitaries before flying to the popular shrine on an Indian Air Force chopper.

After reaching the Kedarnath shrine with Dhami and Gen Singh, the Prime Minister reviewed the reconstruction work at the temple site in a video that was played for him by the authorities.

He later entered the temple to offer a “rudrabhishek puja”.

Dhami said, “During his first visit to the shrine during his second term as PM, he will be unveiling the 12-foot statue of Adi Guru Shankaracharya, whose ‘samadhi sthal’ was washed away in the 2013 Kedarnath [flashflood] tragedy.”

“The statue has been made by a Mysore-based sculptor using chlorite schist, a rock known to withstand rain, sunshine and harsh climate,” he said.

During his fifth visit to the shrine after becoming PM, Narendra Modi will inaugurate the first phase of reconstruction work and lay the foundation for the second phase.