But Mamata took care to carry the Marxists along in her zeal to get the projects for West Bengal implemented. Just as she kept company with West Bengal Transport Minister Subhas Chakraborty during the inauguration of the new railway station complex at Sealdah, today she was accompanied by CPI(M) MP from Haldia, Lakshman Seth on the inaugural run of the new Shalimar-Haldia Maulana Azad intercity express.

To keep up the momentum, she has called a meeting of Railway and state officials on November 14 to finalise plans for the extension of the Metro from Tollygunge to Garia. Prime Minister Vajpayee had inaugurated work on the Metro extension earlier this year. To silence criticism by the Left, she has formed a coordinationcommittee comprising both Central and state representatives to monitor the progress of the work.

Next in line is the Digha-Taluk project of the South-Eastern Railway. Mamata has set deadlines for completing different phases of the project, which had been hanging fire for many years. While she has been involving the state government in implementing the projects, she has also sought to upstage the Marxists in some ways. At the terminal inauguration at Sealdah, she announced that when completed, the new terminal would be known as ``Kolkata''.

This was aimed at taking the wind out of the sails of the state government which has recommended to the Centre that Calcutta be renamed as Kolkata. While the state government awaits the Centre's approval, Mamata has gone ahead with the name.

The CPI(M) argues that all these projects are old and should not go to Mamata's credit. The party's Bengali mouthpiece Ganashakti, on Wednesday recalled that the new Shalimar-Howrah train had actually been promised by formerRailway Minister Nitish Kumar in last year's Railway budget. The party also claimed that the Metro extension and the Digha-Tamluk project were old demands for which the Left had agitated over a long time.