Mamata claimed that along with her team she had to shed tears to get the project approved when she was the Railway Minister during 2009 and 2011.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. (Photo by Dibyangshu SARKAR / AFP)
A day after the inauguration of the East-West Metro corridor, the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday hit out at the BJP in the state assembly for not inviting her at the ceremony in Kolkata.
Mamata claimed that along with her team she had to shed tears to get the project approved when she was the Railway Minister during 2009 and 2011. The project was flagged off by Union Minister Piyush Goyal but the BJP lacked courtesy to invite her for the inauguration.
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“We had worked hard for the East-West Metro project and we literally shed tears for its approval. I felt bad that even for a small route, the BJP doesn’t have the courtesy to call me or inform,” she said in the state assembly.
The first phase of the Metro was inaugurated by the Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal and the Guest of Honour was Union Minister of State Babul Supriyo.
Minister while speaking at the event had accused the West Bengal CM of acting as a barrier in the central government schemes such as Ayushman Bharat and Prime Minister Kisan Yojana.
“We (central government) want to give more projects to West Bengal, but the state is not allowing those,” he was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.
However, other Trinamool Congress leaders namely the minister in West Bengal government Sujit Bose, Lok Sabha Member of Parliament, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, and Krishna Chakraborty Mayor of Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation were listed in the invitation to attend the event.
However, it was later reported that the TMC leader did not attend the event.
The six kilometers long Metro line has six stations namely, Sector V, Central Park, City Centre, Karunamoyee, Bengal Chemical, and Salt Lake Stadium.
As reported by the Indian Express, the corridor between Sector V and Howrah Maidan stations comprises both elevated via duct covering 5.8 km and an underground section of 10.8 km. It is the first time that a tunnel has been bored under the Hooghly river to connect Kolkata and Howrah through the Metro.
Facilities like CCTV cameras, conclave mirrors, air conditioning systems and digital information digital boards among others will be provided for the passengers.
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