Unable to wrest the East-West Metro project from the state government, Trinamool Congress chief and Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee has instructed her ministry officials to ask the two directors from the railways on the Kolkata Metro Railway Corporation (KMRC) board to stop attending its meetings, railways sources said.

A furious state Transport Minister Ranjit Kundu said it is hampering the project and vowed to take up the matter with the Centre.

The state transport department and the Union urban development department have 50 per cent shares each at the KMRC. Since it is a railway project for which the Indian Railways can give the necessary expertise, there are two members from the railways on the KMRC’s Board of Directors.

“I have got a report that they have not been attending the KMRC Board meeting since May. This is ridiculous. The railways are supposed to give us the know-how. We will take up the matter with the Central government,” Kundu said.

However, senior railway officials denied any knowledge of this. “I will check this (why railway directors are not attending KMRC board meet) tomorrow and tell you,” Gautam Sanyal, OSD in the ministry of railways, told The Indian Express from Delhi over phone.

Incidentally, after Banerjee had alleged that the project would uproot thousands of people, the Railway Board had written to the PMO requesting that the project be handed over to the Railways. But the state government had objected to the proposal, saying very few people will be evicted from their places.

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