Mumbai, August 03: Union Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee has proposed to set up a railway project at the abandoned site of Tata Motors at Singur in Hooghly.
The Trinamool chief said her ministry is prepared to set up an industry in the public-private partnership, provided 600 acres of the 1000 acres land acquired at the Singur site is given to the Railways.
“If 600 acres of land is given to us, the Railways will take the responsibility of setting up an industry and the Center should declare it as a national project,” said Banerjee at a programme to flag off the Andolan Local at Singur on Sunday. She added that the remaining 400 acres will be returned to the dispossessed farmers.
Andolan Local, a train connecting Singur and Howrah, is to commemorate her political battle against farmland acquisition by the CPM-led state government for the Nano Project.
The flagging off the train was marked with many symbolisms to underline the Trinamool protest against the land acquisition. The first ticket of the computerised ticketing system at Singur was given to the mother of Tapasi Malik, who was allegedly raped and killed by CPM cadres when she was resisting the land acquisition.
Riding high on her Maa Mati Manus slogan, Banerjee’s announcements drew a huge applause from the gathering.
“Andolan Local will make people remember the sacrifice and the movement,” Mamata said while flagging off the train.
She hinted that she was planning a railway wagon factory at Singur. “We need 18,000 railway wagons. A railway factory has been set up in Rai Bareily, why cannot it be set up at other places?” she said.
Banerjee also announced that Singur would be the first place in the country where Kisan Vision programme, announced in this year’s Railway Budget, will be implemented. The Railways has about 2 acres of land at Singur, which would be developed for the purpose, she added.
She also announced a railway line connecting Singur and Nandigram. The work of doubling the railway tacks between Singur and Nalikul has been completed and soon the railway line will be inaugurated.
The minister also approved a line between Nalikul and Tarakeshwar and added that the work on Tarakeshwar to Bishnupur line, which she had announced in her last tenure, has not picked up and the process will be sped up.
The Union Railway Minister said she had requested Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee to set up a textile cluster at Dhaniakhali in Hooghly.
–Agencies