Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday inaugurated the Kamarkundu flyover and said she had the right to throw it open for the public as she had announced the project during her tenure as the railway minister and the state government had contributed to the construction with land and lion’s share of the cost.
Kamarkundu flyover over the railway tracks will help in faster communication between Tarakeshwar and Arambagh of Hooghly.
“I sanctioned the money for the Tarakeswar-Arambagh-Bishnupur railway tracks when I was the railway minister and this flyover was part of that scheme. The total construction cost (of the project) is Rs 54 crore and we on behalf of the state government had provided Rs 34 crore. We have also given land for this,” Mamata said after inaugurating the flyover from Singur’s Bajemelia village.
BJP leaders had asked whether the chief minister had the right to inaugurate a project by keeping the railway ministry away. Hooghly BJP MP Locket Chatterjee had accused the chief minister of demolishing the federal structure as no one from the Centre was invited to the programme.
Railway officials said 60 per cent of the total project cost was contributed by the ministry of railways and the state did not inform the railways about the inauguration. “The flyover was constructed as a joint venture where the Centre shared 60 per cent of the cost and the state’s contribution was 40 per cent. We don’t know what the chief minister claimed but we have the papers of the project,” said a railway official.
Sources said, the railways had earlier sent a proposal to Hooghly district magistrate Deepap Priya P. for inauguration of the flyover by local MPs and MLAs, including Locket Chatterjee.
“The district magistrate said they would let us know about the event as soon as possible.… There was no communication about the inauguration by the chief minister till Thursday. Meanwhile, we came to know that the flyover would be inaugurated by the CM and then, we wrote to the DM again. We proposed a different date as the minister of railways may be present in the inauguration ceremony, along with the chief minister. But we did not receive any reply,” said a senior railway official in Howrah.