Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday said that Railway Ministry has agreed to her proposal of setting up a level- crossing at Majerhat so as to provide an alternate route to vehicles.
“I and state chief secretary have personally spoken to the concerned persons in Railways for the level-crossing. Railway has informed us that they will be able to construct one level-crossing. They will take two months to construct this level crossing,” said Miss Banerjee during her Europe tour. She said that some roads have already been widened and a few more are in the pipeline.
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The new bridge in Garden Reach has been inaugurated recently, she said adding that another bridge in the Budge Budge-Mahestala area will be inaugurated very soon. “With the widening of roads, new bridges and the level crossing, the commutation problem of the people of Majerhat area will be solved to a great extent. I sympathise with the problem faced by the residents of the area and seek forgiveness. We are trying to do our best,” she said.
She said that metro authorities have been asked to resume work that was stalled by the state government for the last seven days following Majerhat bridge collapse. “It is my humble request to the metro authorities to work in coordination with the state government while undertaking work. A task force will be formed so that the construction of Majerhat bridge and metro work is done together in proper manner,” she said.
Miss Banerjee said that the Majerhat bridge will be constructed in one year and the first three months would go in demolishing the structure.
Bridges more than 50 metres would be built by PWD and an expert committee for maintenance of all bridges will be set up, she said adding: “Presently there is no such system wherein experts are engaged for regular maintenance of bridges. Despite trying hard we failed to get expert opinion on the fate of Vivekananda flyover in last two years.”
Meanwhile, the tendering process has been restructured following Majerhat bridge collapse. State government has decided to set up separate tendering committees for each department with the finance department laying down the revised procedure. The finance department has said that barring PWD all departments have to set up their own tendering committees.
