Kolkata, March 21 (IANS) West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s visit to the United Kingdom has been tentatively postponed by two days following the crisis at London’s Heathrow Airport because of the “significant power shortage” there following a fire in a substation in the western part of the city.
The Chief Minister, along with her associates including the state chief secretary Manoj Pant was supposed to depart from Kolkata on Saturday. But sources from the state secretariat said that following the crisis at Heathrow airport, it has been tentatively decided that the Chief Minister and her team will depart from Kolkata on March 24.
However, state government sources added that the postponed schedule is temporary as of now and any further change in schedule will be intimated accordingly.
At the same time, sources said, it is yet to be decided whether the return of the Chief Minister and her team will also be postponed accordingly or her stay in the United Kingdom will be curtailed and she would return to Kolkata as per the original schedule of March 28.
As per the original schedule, the Chief Minister and her team were supposed to depart from Kolkata at 9.10 a.m. on Saturday and reach Dubai first. Again from Dubai, she was supposed to take the flight to London on the same day at 8 p.m. as per the Indian Standard Time.
During the tour to London, she is supposed to deliver a lecture at a college affiliated with Oxford University. She is also supposed to have meetings with some industrialists and businessmen there.
Mamata Banerjee was also invited to the United Kingdom in 2021 to deliver a lecture at Oxford University. However, the Trinamool Congress alleged that the programme was cancelled due to the clandestine initiative by the Central government.
Earlier in 2015, the Chief Minister made a visit to the United Kingdom. There she was accompanied by a number of members of her cabinet, including the then state Finance Minister Amit Mitra, who is the Chief Economic Advisor to the Chief Minister now.
–IANS
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