A slew of railway projects in Calcutta may be getting deferred because of land acquisition problems, but the railway ministry has ruled out joining the task of removing illegal settlers from project sites and rehabilitating them.

?The question does not arise. In a federal structure, the state governments are responsible for such jobs. We cannot shoulder the responsibility,? minister of state for railways R. Velu said at a seminar in the city on Wednesday.

He also ruled out the possibility of the railways sharing the cost of rehabilitation of settlers. ?Why should we? It is the duty of state governments to fund such projects.?

The Chitpur terminal of the Eastern Railway is one such project being deferred because of the delay in evicting settlers on the land on which the station is coming up. The station, planned to take load off Howrah and Sealdah, was scheduled to be commissioned by Durga puja. It will not be ready before December.

A similar problem is holding up the extension of Metro Railway from Tollygunge to Garia. ?We plan to commission the service up to Pranab Nagar in March 2007. The service up to New Garia will have to wait another nine months because of land acquisition problems,? Metro Railway general manager P. Sudhakar said at the seminar.

The 8.5-km route up to Garia will have five stations: Kudghat, Bansdroni, Naktala, Garia Bazar, Pranab Nagar and New Garia. Each station will have four escalators and a bus terminal will be built adjacent to New Garia station. ?Of the project cost of Rs 910 crore, we have spent Rs 300 crore,? Sudhakar said.

Smart cards, he added, will start replacing magnetic tickets from this month. The new tickets will be priced at Rs 100, 200, 300 and 500. Commuters will have to submit a refundable deposit of Rs 100 to get smart cards.

Minister Velu said the railway was committed to providing the people with affordable services. ?This is a matter of social commitment of the UPA government. Our aim is to increase both passenger and freight volume to make the system economically viable.?

The railway will have around Rs 10,000 crore balance by the end of this year, he added.

The seminar on ?Indian Railways: The Road Ahead?, organised by Merchants Chamber of Commerce, was attended by top railway officials and those who use the railways for business purposes. Shyam Kumar, general manager of Eastern Railway, and R.R. Bhandari, general manager of South Eastern Railway, were among those who delivered speeches.