Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will join the birth centenary celebration of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on March 17 through videoconference. 

He will also send a video message on the occasion, said Indian Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla during an interaction with a delegation of 20 Bangladeshi journalists at state guesthouse Hyderabad House  in Delhi on Wednesday.   

Modi's visit to Bangladesh was cancelled after Bangladesh decided to avoid mass-scale celebrations on March 17 following the detection of three cases of coronavirus on Sunday.  

Shringla said India will also provide 150 fully-equipped ambulances. Of those, 100 ambulances symbolise the 100th birth anniversary of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, and 50 ambulances symbolise the 50 years of Bangladesh's liberation. Modi will make formal announcements in this regard.   

"This is a people-oriented gesture on our part," Shringla said, adding that India will also provide a system in place so that the people injured in road accidents and face trauma can call a number and immediately have access to the ambulances, which would be available across the country.   

He said India is also looking to inaugurate some of the projects implemented by Indian grants. Those include 15 kilometres of pavement in Rajshahi, a public library there, a renovated housing project for the city cleaners in Sylhet, and a girls' school in Khalishpur of Khulna.  

Meanwhile, an official of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs said India will provide TATA Hexa cars to Bangladesh at the request of the Bangladesh military under a defence deal signed with Bangladesh in 2018.  

It will be the first tranche of Indian equipment under the $500 million line of credit extended by India.   

The country is also working with Bangladesh and other neighbouring countries to control the spread of coronavirus.  

Some 1,000 Indians remain quarantined at the moment.    

Shringla said airports and borders will see more stringent efforts in place until the risks are cleared. "We are considering how we can combine our efforts, including the provision of technical assistance," he said.

Meanwhile, it has been decided that the two-day long special session of Jatiya Sangshad marking the birth centenary of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman will be held from March 22. 

The decision was taken yesterday at the Business Advisory Committee (Bac) of parliament, chaired by Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, also member of Bac, among others, participated in the meeting held at the Jatiya Sangshad Bhaban, said a press release issued by the parliament secretariat. 

The session will begin on March 22 where President Abdul Hamid will deliver his speech in parliament. The first ever special session will be prorogued on March 23 with the passage of a resolution on the eventful political life of Bangabandhu.

Although former Indian President Pranab Mukherjee and Nepal's incumbent President Bidhya Devi Bhandari were scheduled to deliver speeches during the session, due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the signatories are not joining the programme. 

Earlier, the parliament went into special sittings on January 31 and June 18 in 1974, in which former Yugoslav President Marshal Josip Broz Tito and the then Indian president VV Giri addressed the Bangladesh Parliament respectively.