Minister Sujit Bose visits New Garia-Airport Metro work site

Kolkata: State Fire and Emergency Services minister Sujit Bose who is also the MLA of Bidhannagar visited the construction site of the New Garia -Airport metro corridor at Mahisbathan in Salt Lake to clear decks for construction of a viaduct which has been pending for a reasonable time due to encroachment issue.

Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd (RVNL) which is executing the metro project has to bring in some machineries for the purpose of construction of the viaduct but are unable to do so as the place is extremely congested due to encroachments in the form of some huts and shops.

The contractor who has been awarded the work by RVNL has threatened to leave the spot if it is not cleared by November. The West Bengal Housing & Infrastructure Development Corporation urged Bose to visit the spot so that a concrete plan can be chalked out for addressing the issue. "We are hopeful that things will be sorted out through talks with the shopkeepers and the residents there," said Bose.

Biddhannagar Mayor Krishna Chakraborty, Hidco chairman Debashis Sen, senior officials of RVNL and Bidhannagar City Police were present during the inspection. A meeting will be held with all stakeholders on Friday to come out with a concrete plan on the issue. According to sources it was agreed in a Chief Secretary level meeting some time back that the state Transport department will bear the cost of rehabilitating the encroachers and District Magistrate North 24-Parganas will supervise things.