Dikshit rails against Gujarat govt over metro rail delay

Former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit today criticised the BJP government in Gujarat over delay in completion of the metro rail between Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar, saying promises made to the people here have not been fulfilled.

Dikshit said under the BJP, development in Gujarat has been "skewed", but the saffron outfit has been "shying away" from answering questions posed by the opposition party over the issue.

"When I visited Gujarat 10-12 years back, the metro rail project appeared near completion. But the project has not been completed yet. We started the metro rail project in Delhi and launched it in one year. Today, 299-km long metro rail is running across Delhi," the veteran Congress leader told reporters.
 

Work on the first phase of the Rs 10,700-crore Metrolink Express for Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad (MEGA) is expected to be completed by 2019.

"It is the duty of the government to fulfil promises made before the elections, and we get to see that the BJP does not fulfil the pomises made to people," she said.

Dikshit was Delhi's chief minister when the metro rail project started in the national capital in December 2002.

The 79-year-old veteran politician also attacked the BJP over its "silence" on questions posed by Congress vice- president Rahul Gandhi during his Gujarat campaign tours.

The three-time Delhi chief minister said the BJP did not have answers to the questions on "skewed" development in the state.

"Rahul Gandhi has made several visits (to Gujarat) and raised a number of issues and asked questions. However, neither the BJP government nor the party has responded to these questions, raising doubts if they at all have answers to these questions," she said.

She said the Congress did a lot of things in Gujarat during its rule like facilitating Amul cooperative model by bringing in father of the white revolution Verghese Kurien and setting up of institutions like the IIM, ISRO (which has Space Applications Centre in Ahmedabad) and NID, among others.

The government recently gave a go-ahead to the second phase of the metro rail project.

Officials of the Metrolink Express for Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad (MEGA) reportedly said the first phase, connecting Thaltej to Motera, will be completed by the end of 2019.