French President Emmanuel Macron might visit Puducherry during his visit to India

French President Emmanuel Macron may visit Puducherry during his visit to India, Chief Minister V Narayanasamy said here today.
French President Emmanuel Macron  | AP
French President Emmanuel Macron | AP

French President Emmanuel Macron may visit Puducherry during his visit to India, Chief Minister V Narayanasamy said here today.

Macron is expected to be in New Delhi to participate in the International Solar Alliance (ISA) summit to be held at New Delhi sometime early next year.

Narayanaswamy said that the French President expressed interest in visiting Puducherry after he had sought an audience with Macron at New Delhi, through the office of Prime Minister and Minister for External Affairs, for inviting Macron to visit Puducherry. This response from Macron was conveyed by Sushma Swaraj, Union Minister for External Affairs when he called on her at New Delhi recently.

Stating that he was overwhelmed with the response from the French President, Narayanasamy said that he would get the Smart City project and the AFD drinking water and sewage project inaugurated by the French President along with Indian Prime Minister.  “ It will be a very happy occasion for us “, he said.

 Francaise De  Development(AFD), a French government Agency would be funding a Comprehensive drinking water and sewage project by providing a soft loan of Rs.1400 crore. The soft loan will be released in three installments with an interest rate of 1.25 percent. A sum of Rs.534 crore would be released as the first installment and the entire amount would be utilized for the drinking water project, he added.The second and third installment would be used for the underground drainage scheme, the chief minister said.

Narayanasamy said that French government is playing an important role in the development of Puducherry, particularly in the Smart city project, AFD, Alliance Francaise, cultural and industrial activities.

Puducherry government is also fully cooperating in the hosting of Bonjour India programme along with the French government.

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