Kolkata, March 22: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's visit to the United Kingdom has been rescheduled, and now, she will be leaving from here on Saturday evening. She is expected to land at London's Heathrow Airport on Sunday afternoon as per the Indian Standard Time (IST), sources in the state secretariat said on Saturday morning. There will be a stopover in Dubai.
According to 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. IST. However, on Friday afternoon, state secretariat insiders said that the Chief Minister's departure might be postponed for two days amid the crisis at Heathrow Airport because of the "significant power shortage" due to a fire in a substation in the western part of the city.
However, the state government sources said simultaneous attempts were underway to ensure that the original schedule could be followed as far as possible. Now, as per the new schedule, she will depart from Kolkata on Saturday evening only. The Chief Minister will be having a packed schedule in London. On March 24, she is slated to attend a programme hosted by the Indian High Commission in London.
Thereafter on March 25, she is supposed to meet the local industrialists and businessmen. On March 26, a Government-to-Business (G2B) level meeting is scheduled. On March 27, the Chief Minister will be delivering a lecture at one of the colleges affiliated with Oxford University. Finally, on March 28, she will depart from London for Kolkata.
CM Banerjee was also invited to the United Kingdom in 2021 to deliver a lecture at Oxford University but it could not materialise. Earlier, in 2015, Chief Minister Banerjee visited the UK. She was accompanied by several of her cabinet members, including then-state Finance Minister Amit Mitra. Mitra is currently the Chief Economic Advisor to Chief Minister Banerjee.
