More than 60,000 to attend Modi’s speech in Abu Dhabi

More than 60,000 Indian citizens are expected to pack into the Zayed Sports City Stadium tomorrow to hear an address by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Organisers of the Ahlan Modi event said registrations were now closed because of high demand.

Mr Modi will be in the UAE for two days and is scheduled to attend the World Governments Summit in Dubai.

On Wednesday, he is scheduled to open the capital’s first Hindu temple

Mr Modi will inaugurate the Baps Hindu temple after a morning prayer ceremony during which compound will be consecrated and blessed.

He is expected to arrive at the temple in Abu Dhabi at 5pm and will be taken on a tour of the site, after which he is expected to speak to people in an amphitheatre within the complex.

Preparations are gathering pace, with more than 700 local artists ready to entertain the crowds at the Abu Dhabi stadium.

“We want to make the cultural procession and the stage performance like a true celebration of Indo-UAE relations,” Dr Nishi Singh, communications director of the Ahlan Modi organising committee, told The National.

Hundreds of community groups from across the country have registered to be part of the event.

“We have schools, colleges, blue-collar workers and women’s groups coming in large numbers,” said Dr Singh, a consultant virologist who has lived in the UAE for more than three decades.

“The best thing is that the talent will be all local. We have more than 700 performers for the cultural procession and stage performances – all UAE-based artists and singers.”

More than 1,500 volunteers from the UAE have been part of the organising and planning process of the largescale stadium gathering.

Over the past month, performers have met in homes and schools to practise.

There were rehearsals at the stadium at the weekend.

Shilpa Nair, the head of the cultural event, described the excitement building in the Indian community.

“We are trying to make this a magical evening for everyone,” said Ms Nair, who also organised the programme for Mr Modi’s August 2015 visit.

Tens of thousands of people gathered at Dubai International Cricket Stadium to see Mr Modi when he visited the UAE that year, the first visit by an Indian prime minister to the Emirates in 34 years.

“When he visited us in 2015, it was more of a celebration for us that a prime minister was visiting us after so long.

“This time it is our tribute for what he has done over all these years.”