The announcement of the project came exactly a year after she launched her indefinite agitation in the village that ultimately drove the Tatas to take away their prized small car project to Sanand in Gujarat.
The minister said she wished to set up the project on a public-private-partnership (PPP) model. Similar projects were also lined up for Allahabad and Alleppy.
Mamata said the remaining 400 acres could be returned to the farmers who had sold the land to the state government for the Tata project.
Inaugurating the Singur-Howrah Andolan local, which will cover a distance of 34 km, Mamata announced that a project to market vegetables and fruits grown at Ratanpur in Singur would be launched.
She said Singur would be the first place in the country where the project, part of the ambitious Kisan Vision programme envisaged in this year’s Railway budget, would be implemented. The minister said two acres of land had been acquired for the purpose and the Railways would arrange special rakes to carry the agricultural produce.
Noting that she had a slew of projects in mind for the area, Mamata said Singur railway station would be developed as a model station at an estimated cost of Rs 50 lakh. Besides, a new railway route would be laid between Singur and Nandigram.
Railways have in possession about 1.13 lakh acres of vacant land spread across 16 zones which would be utilised for setting up land banks, commercial development and other projects connected with working of Railways, she said.
Besides inaugurating the Andolan local, she also unveiled a computerised railway reservation centre at Singur.
