Forget viability, for Mamata, Bengal is no 1

Forget viability, for Mamata, Bengal is no 1
BHAVNA VIJ

NEW DELHI, JULY 9: For over a month now, she has been away from her Ministry in New Delhi, camping in her state, campaigning for by-elections and municipal polls. But that has not stopped Union Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee from keeping up the tradition of her predecessors.

Four times in 20 days, she has summoned the newly-appointed member (engineering), R N Malhotra. In fact, he is back again in Calcutta, called early this week. Their mission: to revive some projects which had been put away in deep-freeze for being too expensive and economically non-viable. And most of these are in her state.

Malhotra, former general manager of the South Eastern Railways based in Calcutta, took charge on June 15 and is responsible for the progress of all railway projects in the country. Sources said that Mamata wants the West Bengal projects to be given the highest priority. These include new lines between Howrah and Amta (74 km), Tamluk and Digha (87 km) and also between Eklakhi and Balurghat with extension from Eklakhi to Malda town (87 km). Revival of these three lines alone would mean an expenditure of Rs 282 crore.

But that is not all. Mamata has also shelved her predecessor Ram Vilas Paswan's pet project. Paswan, known for his largesse to his Hajipur constituency, had announced a Ganga bridge at Patna at a cost of Rs 650 crore. After nearly Rs 50 crore were spent on it, the project now lies frozen. ``And just because he wanted a new railway zone created at Hajipur, he announced six others too - at Jaipur, Allahabad, Jabalpur, Bhubaneswar, Bangalore and Bilaspur. Posts of GM and half a dozen senior officials were created for each zone. And now Mamata has gone and got them shelved,'' said a railway official.