PM, Sonia arrive in Srinagar

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi arrived here Tuesday afternoon after laying the foundation stone of a hydro electric power in Jammu region.

Both took off in army helicopters from the technical area of the Srinagar airport to reach the Nehru helipad at the headquarters of the army's 15th Corps in Badami Bagh cantonment area.

At the military base, they will meet the soldiers injured in the terrorist ambush in Srinagar Tuesday that killed eight men. It was one of the worst such attacks in recent times.

A heavily-guarded cavalcade took the dignitaries to the Raj Bhawan on the foothills of the Zabarwan mountain range in Srinagar.

The prime minister will release a commemorative postage stamp in honour of the 20th century Kashmiri poet Mehjoor at the Sher-e-Kashmir convention complex on the banks of the Dal Lake here.

After that, both he and Gandhi will co-chair a meeting of the state cabinet along with Chief Minister Omar Abdullah to review the implementation of the prime minister's Rs.37,000 crore reconstruction package for Jammu and Kashmir.

Abdullah is scheduled to give a power point presentation on the progress of developmental projects in the state.

On Wednesday, Manmohan Singh and Gandhi will inaugurate the 10.96 km long railway tunnel built at a cost of Rs.1,300 crores to link the Kashmir Valley with Jammu region.

The tunnel will provide an all weather surface link between the landlocked valley and the rest of the country as the 300-km Srinagar-Jammu highway often gets shut because of snowfall.

Meanwhile, all pedestrian and vehicular movement on the Boulevard Road in Srinagar was halted because of the VVIP visit.