Modi in Saudi Arabia: PM breaks bread with Indian blue collar workers

Pic courtesy: @MEAIndia

Riyadh: In an unprecedented gesture, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday shared a meal with Indian blue collar workers in Saudi Arabia here.

Modi sat down for the meal after addressing a gathering of the workers at the L&T residential complex during which he voiced his appreciation for the hard work they have put in for the development of the Gulf kingdom.

“Eating together, hearing each other's thoughts & experiences... at L&T Workers' Residential Complex in Saudi Arabia,” the prime minister, who arrived here earlier in the day on a two-day bilateral visit to Saudi Arabia, tweeted along with a picture.

Indian engineering and infrastructure major L&T is doing around $2 billion worth of work on one line of the $600-billion Riyadh Metro Project.

Of the nearly three million expatriate Indians in Saudi Arabia, a large number of them are blue collar workers involved in the Gulf kingdom's various infrastructure projects.

Around $10 billion come in as remittances to India from Saudi Arabia every year.

Blue collar workers include masons, carpenters, brick-layers and plumbers among others.