West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday said that she was hurt at not being invited to the East-West Metro inauguration, adding that she had to work hard to get the project approved during her tenure as Railway Minister.
Neither any representative of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) nor Ms. Banerjee was present at the inauguration of the mega infrastructure project, which was inaugurated by Railway Minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday.
“We had worked hard for the East-West Metro project. We had to literally shed tears for it [approval]. I was hurt as I was not even informed about the inauguration,” Ms. Banerjee said in the State Assembly.
The TMC leadership pointed that Ms Banerjee’s name was not on the invitation card of the inauguration of the project. The invitation card though had the names of local MLA and MP, the TMC leadership boycotted the event.
The 16.6-km East-West Metro project will connect Howrah Maidan on one side of the river Hooghly to Rajarahat Newtown in the north-eastern fringes of the city. This is also the country’s first underwater Metro project.
Responding to the remarks of the Chief Minister, Union Minister of State Babul Supriyo said that Metro officials had gone to the State Secretariat and invited the Chief Minister. He said only when the Prime Minister inaugurates a project, the Chief Minister is formally invited.
