Mamata inaugurates diesel locomotive factory

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday inaugurated a diesel locomotive component factory at a site 20 km away from Singur, which had been  promised when she was the Railways minister.

The factory will manufacture components for diesel locomotives built at Diesel Locomotive Works, Varanasi. Railway minister Mukul Roy and Railway board chairman V N Mittal were present during the inauguration.

The project was sanctioned in 2009-10 when Banerjee was the Railways minister. She had laid the foundation of the factory on December 26, 2010 and the project was completed within a record time of two years.

Promising to set up 15 more such railway projects, Banerjee dismissed the CPI-M's reservations over her announcement of projects for West Bengal. "In 2009-10 when I was the Railways minister, many people had ridiculed this project after I laid the foundation and described it as a mere 'eye-wash'. But now you see this factory has started functioning," she told a gathering.

She said that work on 15 other rail projects, including two projects at Budge Budge, a metro railway rehabilitation centre at Noapara, Rs 1,000 crore railway factory at Kanchrapara, projcts at Haldia, Siliguri and Coochebehar and an industrial park at Jellingham would be completed shortly.

Banerjee said she had a vision for a political change in the state and accordingly prepared railway projects much ahead of the actual political change took place for generating lakhs of of employement. "I had realised that nothing can be done on a dead infrastructure," she said.