Days after CPI(M) leader Bikash Bhattacharya said that the credit for Maa Flyover here should not be taken by any other party as it was conceived during the Left Front’s tenure, Bengal minister Firhad Hakim on Thursday underlined that it was the Mamata Banerjee government that undertook the construction of the overpass, pictures of which erroneously appeared in a UP government advertisement.

Bhattacharya, the former mayor of Kolkata, had, amid the row over the advertisement, said that “neither the BJP government at the Centre nor the TMC government in the state should seek recognition” for the flyover as it was the brainchild of erstwhile Left Front government.

Making light of his claims, Hakim, who is also the chief of Kolkata Municipal Corporation’s board of administrators, told reporters that the tender for the flyover, under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) scheme, was floated in 2009 by then Left Front government but they failed to commission it on time, leading to huge cost overrun.

Work on the flyover started in full swing only after the TMC government came to power, the transport minister asserted. The 9.62-km-long flyover was made ready for use in 2015, he said.

“Those appropriating credit for this flyover are not stating facts. They should look into their records well,” he maintained. A full-page Uttar Pradesh government advertisement published on Sunday in Indian Express to project the economic progress of the state under its chief minister Yogi Adityanath had used an image of the Kolkata flyover by mistake, causing flutter on social
media.

The Indian Express took responsibility for the error and issued a corrigendum regretting it. Taking a dig at the Yogi Adityanath government, Hakim said that the advertisement showcasing the UP government’s achievements actually acknowledged the “great work” done by Mamata Banerjee.

“It was actually a backhanded compliment… It shows that Yogi Adityanath peddles falsehood about the performance of our government publicly. In reality, he had to use the development work of Bengal in an advertisement for
his state,” the TMC leader said.

Adityanath was among the star BJP campaigners in West Bengal during the MarchApril Assembly polls.