New Delhi, Sep 30 : President Pratibha Devisingh Patil on Friday left for a state visit to Switzerland from September 30 to October 4 and Austria from October 4 to 7 to enhance bilateral relations with both the nations.

Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar, Law Minister Salman Khurshid, Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology Sachin Pilot and Navy Chief Admiral Nirmal Verma saw off the President at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

The members of the delegation accompanying the President include Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Rajeev Shukla and Members of Parliament Vijay Jawaharlal Darda, Prataprao Ganpatrao Jadhav, and Dr. Chinta Mohan.

Senior officials including the Secretary to President Dr. Christy Fernandez and Secretary (West), Ministry of External Affairs, are also a part of the delegation, besides a number of business leaders and members of the media.

"The visit of our President is a part of the process of maintaining our high level engagement with Switzerland and Austria. The exchanges between the two countries in the political, Parliamentary, economic and commercial, cultural and science and technology fields have been gathering momentum," said M. Ganapathi, Secretary (West) in the External Affairs Ministry.

He said President Patil's visit to both Switzerland and Austria would provide added impetus in the further expansion and consolidation of the historical friendship and cooperation between India and these two friendly countries.

"Both Switzerland and Austria are renowned for their experience and expertise in activities in the high technology related area, renewable and clean energy, infrastructure development, vocational education, small and medium enterprises, drugs and pharmaceuticals, biotechnology besides others," he added.

In Switzerland, the President would pay homage to the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi on October 2 at his statue in Geneva. While in Berne, President will hold official talks with the President of the Swiss Confederation Micheline Calmy-Rey, and other members of the Federal Council.

She will also unveil a bust of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore at the University of Lausanne on October 4.

An MoU is expected to be signed between the University and the Indian Council for Cultural Relations on setting up of a Chair on Indian Studies. It is significant that this event takes place at a time when we celebrate the 150th anniversary of the birth of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore. (ANI)