Nagpur, Oct 1 (IANS) Over 150,000 people, including school and college students and freedom fighters, are expected to participate in a mammoth peace march here Thursday to mark the International Day of Non-Violence, which coincides with the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh will flag off the nine-km march that will have a team of motorcycle riders carrying peace torches in the forefront followed by 34 floats depicting the Mahatma’s life, a music band and a group of skaters, its convener New and Renewable Energy Minister Vilas Muttemwar said.

Justice (Retd) Chandrashekhar Dharmadhikari, the president of the World Peace Day organizing committee set up for the event, will lead the march.

Muttemwar told IANS that United Nations Industrial Development Organization’s (UNIDO) Southeast Asia chief Philip Roach Scott will be present at the rally as the UN has resolved to observe the Gandhi anniversary as International Day of Non-Violence.

While over 700,000 people in the city have signed a peace pledge that ‘I believe in non-violence’ in the run-up to the peace march, an evocative exhibition of pictures narrating the story of the Father of Nation was visited by nearly 400,000 people, Muttemwar said.

The whole campaign being the first of its kind in terms of its scale, the Guinness Book of Records has agreed to consider it as a record, he added.

• Chandrashekhar