Calcutta, Sept. 4: The government has poured cold water on mayor Subrata Mukherjee’s plan for two more flyovers in the city. The Trinamul Congress-controlled Calcutta Municipal Corporation is mulling a flyover near Ballygunge Phari and another to link the north end of the Park Street overpass with Bentinck Street.

“The CMC cannot unilaterally undertake any major infrastructure project without getting necessary clearance from the Metropolitan Planning Committee (MPC). The CMC has informed neither us nor the MPC about the proposed projects,’’ urban development minister Asok Bhattacharya said.

He argued that it was mandatory for different departments and development agencies to seek prior approval of the MPC for their projects. “The CMC cannot flout this rule. The flyover projects must be discussed in the MPC to ascertain their viability. The mayor cannot initiate a project according to his personal whim,” he said. “We formed the MPC to ensure a comprehensive and integrated development of the Calcutta Metropolitan Area (CMA).”

Bhattacharya’s remarks drew an angry outburst from Mukherjee. “The CMC has sufficient power to undertake the development projects on its own. We do not require anybody’s prior approval. The state government cannot prevent us from constructing the flyovers which will help ease traffic congestion in central and south Calcutta,” he said, when contacted in Australia.

The government’s move to reactivate the MPC came in the wake of concern expressed by some eminent urban planners over a lack of co-ordination among the development agencies.

Experts from different states and institutions and representatives of development agencies from Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad opted for a comprehensive and integrated development in the Calcutta metropolitan area while participating in a workshop.

“The city needs a comprehensive and integrated development. Different government departments and development agencies should not take up plans individually… (they should) try their best to prevent overlapping. There must be a single agency to examine and monitor the major plans and the MPC is the right panel,” said D.S. Meshram, president of the Institute of Town Planners.

P.K. Pradhan, joint secretary in the Union ministry of urban development and poverty alleviation, said Bengal was the first state to form an MPC and urged the government officials to properly utilise it.