Title - Mamata Banerjeurges Army chief to clear Metro projects

KOLKATA: Chief minister Mamata Banerjee's visit to Delhi to attend Pranab Mukherjee's swearing-in ceremony on Wednesday may reap some benefit for the state after all. According to sources, Mamata met Chief of Army Staff Gen Bikram Singh after the programme and urged him to look into projects in Kolkata that are pending a nod from the Army.The primary among these are three stations of the Joka-BBD Bag Metro Railway stretch and a small stretch of the Hooghly riverfront that the state government wants to beautify."The CoAS spent several years in Kolkata as GOC-in-C of the Eastern Command. He saw Mamata Banerjee's style of working and  was quite impressed with Mamata's style of working the kind of effort Mamata made. He assured the chief minister that he would look into the matter," the source revealed.The Metro requires three acres on the Maidan for the Victoria, Park Street and Esplanade stations. Some more land will be required on a temporary basis for work in the underground stretch and parking the tunnel boring machines and other equipment. The Army has already given clearance for a survey to RITES and the Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd (RVNL).The survey report will be ready by the end of this month after which Metro authorities will make a pitch for the land with the Army, which is the custodian of the Kolkata Maidan.

"We will have five underground stations at Kidderpore, Victoria, Park Street, Esplanade and BBD Bag.

The eight stations from Joka to Majerhat will be elevated in the 16.7-km stretch that will cost Rs 2,619 crore

. The expected date of completion of the elevated stretch is end-2014. We shall start work on the underground stretch after that but preparations need to be made.

We have already earmarked three acres in Barrackpore that we will hand over to the Army in lieu of the land in the Maidan," said Protyush Ghosh, DGMG, Metro Railway.

Though three stations will be built under the Maidan, there will be minimum damage to the greenery. The Metro will require about 40 square metres at the dispersal points of the stations. The three stations may have 12 such dispersal points.

For the riverfront project, the Army will have to give its consent to a three-tier pathway that the government wants to build from where people can watch the sunset.