Title - Railway projects will ensure industrialisation: Mamata

Inaugurates two factories at Dankuni in Hooghly district Inaugurating two Railway factories at Dankuni in Hooghly district, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said on Monday that “the 16 Railway factories I had promised in West Bengal (when Union Railway Minister) will ensure industrialisation of the State”.Ms. Banerjee had laid the foundation stones for the two factories to manufacture electric and diesel engine components in December 2009 when she was the Railway Minister. Back then, Ms. Banerjee had announced that the twin factories will generate employment directly and indirectly for more than one lakh youths.“I knew then that the Communist Party of India (Marxist) will be ousted from the State. But something will have to be done as nothing could have been achieved with the dying skeleton they were leaving behind,” she said, adding that she had planned to set up these 16 factories with this end in mind.Alleging that the previous Left Front government was not helpful in providing the Railways with land for several projects, Ms. Banerjee said that after the Trinamool Congress came to power implementation of many of these projects had been speeded up.“I left the Railway Ministry in 2001 and then again became the Railway Minister in 2009….In the meantime they (the Left) were able to bring one train to Bengal. Every year I had given [many] trains to the State,” she said.

Ms. Banerjee claimed that the two factories at Dankuni were built “in record time” despite “attempts by the CPI(M) to derail the process.”

Reiterating that her government has “already created six lakh jobs” out of a target of 10 lakh jobs in the course of a five-year term, Ms. Banerjee asked the youth not to lose heart if they are not able to secure a job.

Railway Minister Mukul Roy was also present among the dignitaries who waved green flags to signal the departure of the first engine from the factory.