More than 500 people protested on Thursday at Raha in Nagaon district of Assam against the setting up of the proposed All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Changsari, a day before Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in the state to lay the foundation stone for it. The protestors demanded that the institute be set up at Raha instead of Changsari, The Telegraph reported.

The Middle Assam AIIMS Demand Committee and other organisations had called for a bandh on Friday and blocked the NH-37 highway for more than two hours on Thursday. Ahead of the prime minister’s visit to the state, the Assam police imposed Section 144 in Raha, Nagaon Deputy Commission Samsher Singh told Assam Tribune.

“Initially, the government had assured the people of Raha that AIIMS would be set up here,” Ram Nath Bordoloi, a committee member told The Telegraph. “Dispur has decided to lay the foundation stone of AIIMS at a time when a case is pending in the green tribunal,” he said.

The protests have been on since June 2016 and youth was also killed during police firing at one of the demonstrations. The agitators on Thursday submitted a memorandum through Singh to Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal reiterating their demands. Later, they called off their protests.

Modi reached Assam on Friday morning and inaugurated India’s longest bridge, which will be called the Bhupen Hazarika bridge after the singer. He will then proceed to lay the foundation stone for AIIMS in Guwahati and the Indian Agriculture Research Institute.