Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee held what could be described as her first durbar with the industry on Friday. And it was a proactive, time- bound, robust agenda for development that she presented.

In the backdrop of a fast-changing political situation, representatives from big, medium and small industrial houses listened, putting forward carefully worded questions. At the end of the two-hour interactive session, it looked as if many had shaken off their initial hesitation.

What Banerjee promised was 1,12,000 acres of land, ready for development under various templates announced in the railway budget — multi-functional stations, cold chains, infrastructure projects, power projects, wagon manufacturing unit, ancillary industry and others. The land is already under the Railways’ land bank.

“Just come out, take over and do it,” said Banerjee, inviting the industry to show some urgency. “I am impatient, I want change. You can’t take 1,000 years to do things, we are not going to survive that long.”

For many, it was a throwback to Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s adage of “do it fast” at the beginning of his second term in 2006.

If that was not convincing enough, Amit Mitra — the former FICCI president appointed as the chairman of a committee of experts on Railways — was there to bolster her arguments. “All that had been announced will be very much deliverable,” Mitra said, “believe me, there are low hanging fruits”. The minister was impatient and had set a 15-day deadline, Mitra said. “So, look at your time-frame and make the best of it.”

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