Bengal govt to tie up with Rlys for infrastructure development: Prabhu.

The West Bengal Government has agreed to form a joint venture with Indian Railways for railway infrastructure development and commercial use of improved infrastructure, including railway stations.

The Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu said 17 States had already signed initial agreements with the Railways for such joint ventures.

Regarding the stalled East-West Metro Project for Kolkata, he said following discussions with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, all hurdles for resuming the project implementation have been removed.

The Minister assured, “the project (first phase) implementation would be complete by 2019”. He also said the Railways would bear the second phase cost escalation of Rs. 765 crore for route realignment – a 2 km detour.

Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation (KMRCL), a joint venture between the Government of India and Government of West Bengal, is implementing the project.

Meanwhile, the Railways Minister launched a mobile app for protection of women passengers. Eastern Railway has made the Android-based app available. An iPhone version would also be available soon. The app will help distressed passengers alert the nearest RPF Inspector and Divisional Security Control.

HBL