KOLKATA: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee directed the top brass of her administration to prepare a comprehensive plan to initiate the work of three crucial projects — Ghatal Master Plan, Sundarbans Master Plan and construction of a bridge connecting Sagar Island and the mainland — at the earliest.
It needs a mention that the Bengal government had sought the Centre's budgetary allocation for all the three projects. Now with the Centre not extending any support for the same, the state government is taking the move to arrange the amount needed to implement the projects.
Implementation of Ghatal Master Plan is needed to check flood in the area. Similarly, Sundarbans Master Plan is to preserve it from getting damaged when it gets hit by cyclones almost every year. While the bridge connecting Sagar Island and the mainland was a longstanding demand of the local people. Despite the Mamata Banerjee government's decision to give 74 per cent stake to the Centre in the proposed deep sea port at Tajpur in exchange for the construction of an iron bridge across Muriganga to connect Sagar Island with the mainland, the Centre did not take up the project despite initial assurances.
During a meeting at Nabanna on Wednesday, the Chief Minister directed Chief Secretary HK Dwivedi and Finance Secretary Manoj Pant to look into the provisions of even getting soft loans by preparing a comprehensive plan of action for all three.
At the same time, a comprehensive plan has been prepared for re-beautification of Digha that was badly affected due to Cyclone Yaas. She had even made a sketch on a white paper to show the concerned officers and engineers how the work of re-beautification needs to be carried out.
"Principal Secretary of the Irrigation and Waterways department Prabhat Mishra is preparing a plan of action to re-beautify the tourist spot. At the same time the reconstruction of pavements and other damaged structures will be carried out only after proper foundation work," Banerjee said.
She also urged the hotel owners at Mandarmani to follow the set norms while reconstructing their hotels that were damaged due to the cyclone.