With the change of guard at Writers’ Building, the state government may not hand over its stake in the Rs 4,676-crore East-West Metro project to the railway ministry as agreed by the previous Left Front government.
The Left Front government had agreed to hand over the state’s 30 per cent stake in Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation (KMRC) that is developing the 13-km stretch of underground and elevated tracks from Salt Lake Sector-V to Howrah, to the railway ministry. KMRC is a joint venture between the Union urban development ministry and the state government. The urban development ministry has a 25 per cent stake in it.
“When Mamata Banerjee was the railway minister, she wanted to take over the East-West Metro project. Now, possibly the new state government will keep its stake with it,” Trinamool Congress MP Sudip Banerjee, who earlier this week met Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to discuss the project, said.
Mamata Banerjee had expressed keenness to take over the project on the ground that it required synergy with the North-South Metro, run by the railway ministry. The urban development ministry had also agreed to hand over its stake to the railway ministry.
Union minister of state for urban development Saugata Roy said the Left front government had written to the railway ministry to take its portion and renegotiate the loan taken from Japanese Bank of International Cooperation (JBIC) for the project.
“But this has not been settled. Now, it is up to the state government whether it will give its stake to the Railways or not. Renegotiation of the Japanese loan can be a problem for the handover,” he said. KMRC has taken about 45 per cent of the total project cost as loan from JBIC.
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State transport minister Subrata Bakshi refused to comment, but a railway official close to the development said, “In the changed political scenario, there are some indications from the state government that it may not hand over the project to the railway ministry.”
A spokesperson of Kolkata Metro that runs the North-South Metro under the railway ministry, said, “This (East-West Metro) is a separate project in which Railways has no stake. In February last year, the Indian Railway in-principle agreed to take over the project from the state government, though the modalities for the take over has not been finalised, and there has been no communication on this from the state government since then.”