Jhalmuri diplomacy works sometimes: Babul Supriyo

“Sometimes jhalmuris help, sometimes they don’t. My talks with the state government have borne fruit and I want to thank the state government for allowing me to wear full pants to those meetings and do my job. We are aggressively looking at having the Phase I (from Salt Lake to Sealdah) completed by June 2018 but I have spoken to officers both in Rail and in my department (Urban Development) and hopefully we will have a joyride by December 2017,” Supriyo said during an interactive session on ‘Federal Structure of Governance is the Key to Faster Urban Growth in India’ organised by the Merchant Chambers of Commerce (MCC).

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The project was stuck over rehabilitation issues of a section of residents of the Dattabad area in Salt lake. Hopes revived for the project as unwilling residents agreed to relocate from the project site, with Supriyo raising the matter with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The issue has been “resolved” and the date of commissioning was likely to be advanced by six months, he said.

“The Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation (KMRC) has agreed to the state government’s request to give compensation to the people who were staying in Dattabad. We have agreed to construct 20 more houses as part of the rehabilitation drive,” he said.

Sribhumi MLA, Sujit Bose, said nearly 80 families will be allocated a 254 sq ft house some 200 metres away from the project site along with a compensation package of Rs 5,000 per month.

On the project’s cost escalation, Supriyo said: “The proposed cost in 2008 was Rs 4,875 crore and since the cost escalation for the realignment alone would be Rs 750 crore, the total rise in cost will be at least 1.7 times the initial figure.”

Referring to Phase II — from Sealdah to Howrah Maidan — Supriyo said there were issues of alignment and realignment for which the KMRC would be writing to the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to gain special permission.

“We have agreed to the realignment that the state government had proposed but the new route goes within 40 metres of Old Currency Building. As per the ASI’s rules, no construction can take place within 100 m of a building to which the ASI has accorded heritage status. The KMRC would be writing to the ASI to seek permission if this can be treated as a special case. The latest technology used by the KMRC will not harm the heritage building. Once this is sorted out, we are going to get a clear picture for the Phase II,” he said.

The state government was insisting with its proposal of the realigned route on the KMRC, which was executing the project, but the route was yet to be vetted by the Railways.

KMRC, initially a joint venture between the Union Urban Development Ministry and the West Bengal government, was developing the East West metro project connecting Salt Lake to Howrah Maidan.

In 2013, following a request from Mamata, the state’s stake in the project was handed over to the Indian Railways, which runs the existing metro services in Kolkata.