West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will not be present at the inauguration of East-West Metro corridor in Kolkata on July 11. The Trinamool Congress chief, along with leader of the party in Lok Sabha Sudip Bandyopadhya, had been invited to the function where Union Textiles Minister Smriti Irani will inaugurate the corridor.
Unlike the first two metro projects in West Bengal, which were funded by the Railway ministry, this project was largely funded by the urban development ministry. However, it was expected that Railway minister Ashwini Vaivab or urban development minister Hardeep Singh Puri would be given the charge to inaugurate the corridor.
Banerjee has flown to Darjeeling on an invitation by the first elected Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA). Her absence at the function is seen as a strong message to the central government.
The East-West Metro corridor was planned in 2009 by then West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. Then Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee inaugurated the project and released the initial funds. The most critical views then came from Banerjee who was the opposition leader in the state Assembly. She opposed the eviction of a large number of slum-dwellers, resulting in the long delay of the project.
The project was sped up after Narendra Modi government came to power. Modi assigned then Union Minister Babul Supriyo to talk to Banerjee and the chief minister finally gave a go-ahead to the project. Interestingly, Supriyo is now a member of the Trianamool Congress and an MLA in West Bengal Assembly.
The corridor connects eastern and western parts of Kolkata. It also includes a tunnel under the Hooghly river. Sources said the new project would be much more sophisticated than the old metro projects being run by the Railway ministry with limited resources.
