KOLKATA: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch development projects worth over Rs 7,800 crore in the state today and flag off West Bengal’s first Vande Bharat Express from Howrah station. He will also inaugurate the Joka-Taratala stretch of the Purple line of Kolkata and attend the second National Ganga Council (Namami Gange conservation project) meeting.
CM Mamata Banerjee is also scheduled to attend the meeting along with representatives from four other states - Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand. The PM will also have a one-to-one interaction with Mamata during his visit.
This is the first time since the 2021 Assembly polls that the two political heavyweights blistered each other, and are going to share a stage. This year, Mamata met Modi in New Delhi and there was a buzz that they had discussed Bengal’s dues from the Centre related to GST and Central funds.
Among the new projects, he will lay the foundation stone and also inaugurate multiple sewerage infrastructure projects worth over Rs 2,550 crore. A National Institute of Water and Sanitation named after BJP ideologue Syama Prasad Mookerjee will be inaugurated as well.
Modi will also flag off Kolkata’s third metro service between Joka and Taratala. Modi from the INS Netaji Subhas, the Indian Navy’s Bengal headquarters will chair the second meeting of the National Ganga Council which will be attended by the Union Minister for Jal Shakti, other Union Ministers of Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal. The NGC spearheads the exercise for preventing pollution in Ganga and its tributaries and their rejuvenation.
The Vande Bharat Express will run between Howrah and New Jalpaiguri and the superfast train will take 7.5 hours to cover the distance. The train will run six days a week. The Vande Bharat in Bengal is considered to be the slowest one in the state. Though the train’s maximum speed capacity is 180km per hour, it will run 70 km per hour on average because of the soft soil condition beneath the tracks and the quality of tracks required.
In other states where Vande Bharat is serving, average speed of the train is 130 km per hour. The train will leave Howrah station at 6 am and reach New Jalpaiguri at 1.30 pm and after a one-hour stopover, it will leave the north Bengal station at 2.30 pm and reach Howrah at 10 pm. “We know, the presence of Modi is enough to boost the motivation of our workers. It is his second visit since our party’s unimpressive performance in the high-octane 2021 Assembly polls. Though it is not a political event, his presence is enough to boost our workers ahead of the rural polls,” said a BJP leader in Kolkata.