If Calcutta could be London, why couldn’t Howrah be a Sheffield, agriculture marketing minister Arup Roy said at Writers’ Buildings on Tuesday.

Roy, a Trinamul MLA from Howrah, was speaking after meeting the mayor of Calcutta’s twin city, Mamata Jaiswal. “We discussed various issues for the development of Howrah,” said Roy.

The government, he added, would beautify the Hooghly bank from Bally to the Shibpur botanical garden. “We will also free the stretch of illegal constructions. We will prepare a master plan.”

The minister blamed the CPM-run Howrah Municipal Corporation for the city’s lack of development.

When contacted, Mamata Jaiswal said: “I requested the agriculture marketing minister to help fill up the vacant posts at the Howrah Municipal Corporation. He agreed to help us.”