West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee.
Credit: PTI File Photo
Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who has decided to skip the inauguration of three new metro routes in the city by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday, asserted that the projects were planned and sanctioned during her tenure as railway minister.
The PM will visit West Bengal on Friday evening to unveil Rs 5,200-crore worth infrastructure projects, including three crucial metro stretches, and address a public rally.
Banerjee has decided to give the event a miss, with TMC leaders citing the alleged harassment of migrants from the state in BJP-ruled regions as the reason.
The chief minister, who held the railway portfolio twice – first in the NDA government under Atal Bihari Vajpayee between 1999 and 2001, and again during the Congress-led UPA-2 from 2009 to 2011 – said it was in her second stint that she sanctioned the series of metro expansion projects across Kolkata.
“Allow me to be a little nostalgic today. As the Railways Minister of India, I was fortunate in planning and sanctioning a series of Metro Railway corridors in metropolitan Kolkata. I had drawn the blueprints, arranged the funds, initiated the works and ensured that the different ends of the city (Joka, Garia, Airport, Sector V, etc) were connected by an intra-city Metro grid. Later, as the Chief Minister of West Bengal, I had the additional privilege of taking part in execution of the projects," she said in a post on X.
"From the State, I arranged free land, paved roads, arranged rehabilitation of displaced people, removed impediments, and ensured all help in the execution of projects. Our chief secretaries successively held series of coordination meeting to ensure integration of execution agencies. My planning as Railways Minister got fulfilment in my participation in execution. Expanding Metro infrastructure has been a long journey for me. Allow me some nostalgia today,” Banerjee said.
The 13.61 km-long network, spread across the ‘Green’, ‘Yellow’ and ‘Orange’ lines, marks a defining moment in the city’s metro journey that began in 1984. Officials said the new routes are expected to ease congestion on Kolkata’s choked roads and transform daily commuting for millions.