PrintFriendly- The better the transport means in our country, the stronger our resolve of self-sufficiency and confidence will be.
- I am happy that apart from Kolkata, the friends of Hooghly, Howrah and North 24 Parganas districts are also now getting the benefit of Metro service facility.
- Today, the section, which has been inaugurated from Naopada to Dakshineswar, will reduce the distance of one-and-a-half hours to just 25-35 minutes.
- It will now be possible to reach Kolkata’s “Kavi Subhas” or “New Garia” from Dakshineswar in just one hour from Metro, while the road distance takes up to two-and-a-half hours.
- This facility will greatly help the school-college goers, employees working in offices and factories and workers.
- It will now be easier to reach the Baranagar campus of the Indian Statistical Institute and the Economics Department of the Rabindra Bharati University and University of Calcutta in particular.
- Moreover, it has become very convenient for devotees to reach the temples of Maa Kali in Kalighat and Dakshineswar.
- Friends, Kolkata Metro had the distinction of being the country’s first Metro decades ago. But the modern incarnation and expansion of this Metro has started only in the last few years.
- And, I am happy that there is a vivid impression of Made in India whatever is being constructed in India today, whether it is the Metro or the railway system.
- Large quantities of material and technology being used from the laying of tracks to modern locomotives and coaches of trains are now indigenous.
- It has also increased the speed of our work, improved quality, reduced the cost, and the speed of trains is also increasing.
- Friends, West Bengal has been an important centre of self-sufficiency in the country and there is immense potential for trade from here to the North East and with our neighbouring countries.
- In view of this, serious efforts are being made to empower the railway network in the last few years.
- For example, the Sivoke-Rangpo New Line will connect the state of Sikkim with West Bengal for the first time through rail network.
- Trains are running from Kolkata to Bangladesh. Recently, the rail line from Haldibari to Indo-Bangladesh border has been commissioned.
- During the last six years, a number of over bridges and under bridges have been taken up in West Bengal.
Author
(The views expressed are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect the position of the organisation)