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Mukul Meets Railway Officials to Expedite State Projects

  • Railway minister Mukul Roy on Monday met the general managers of Eastern, South Eastern and Metro Railways and discussed ongoing projects in Kolkata and the districts. During the meeting, the minister assured railway officials of help for seamless implementation of the projects.Satish Agnihotri, managing director, Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd (RVNL) - the agency in charge of 12 projects including the Metro ones - was also present during the meeting. After sitting through various presentations, Roy decided to convene another meeting on Tuesday. This meeting will be held with officials of Metro Railways, RVNL, state's power and irrigation department, Kolkata Port Trust and J K Saha, special secretary (transport) to the government of West Bengal.

  • During the presentations on Monday, Metro officials apprised the minister of the ongoing survey of the Basirhat-Haroa-Dum Dum stretch and other ongoing projects. Roy told officials that he would get MPs, MLAs and Panchayat leaders to sit together and sort out the problems faced by the implementing agencies.The railway officials were quite impressed by Roy's assurances to look into their problems. The minister also set deadlines for the Joka-BBD Metro stretch. According to officials, the Joka-Ajanta Talkies stretch will be completed by October, 2013. The stretch up to Majerhat will be completed by October, 2014 and the final phase up to BBD Bag a year later. Roy will meet defence minister A K Antony over the use of some defence land for the Prinsep Ghat-Majerhat project. The minister also proposes to meet Pranab Mukherjee on March 31 for acquisition of land belonging to the Alipore Mint for the Joka-BBD Bag project.

  • While officials in Kolkata remained tight-lipped, sources in Hooghly claimed that over 3,000 land losers have demanded railway jobs as per Mamata Banerjee's announcement to offer jobs apart from compensation for land taken acquired by the railways. According to them, land owners split their property into pieces and distributed them among family members soon after the announcement was made.

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