BALURGHAT: In view of the slow and sluggish development, due to Centre's apathy, of the much-hyped Balurghat-Hili rail project, a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was filed in the Calcutta High Court by a veteran journalist of South Dinajpur Birendranath Mahato.
The petitioner's lawyer Kalyan Kumar Chakraborty said the petition was filed at the Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal and Justice Arijit Banerjee.
According to Chakraborty, the petition had been granted by the Division Bench of the court already.
The Northeast Frontier (NF) Railway authority and the Chief Secretary of the state had been part of the petition.
"The first hearing will commence on July 26 at the Division Bench. The railway authority is not showing any interest towards immediate appropriate effective steps for implementation of railway facility at the aforesaid area, the petitioner is compelled to approach this court for the ends of justice," Chakraborty submitted in the petition.
"The economy of the district will be changed once the project is completed," Chakraborty stated.
"Hili is an important International land port through which bilateral trade between India and Bangladesh conducts," the petition further added. Notably in 2011, the then Railway minister Mamata Banerjee had announced a 29.7 km railway extension project from Balurghat to Hili.
But, the project didn't pick up pace after 2017. Former Balurghat's Trinamool Congress MP Arpita Ghosh had raised the issue in the Parliament but despite the appeal of Ghosh, the railway authority had shown no interest in the project.