Private interest subservient to public interest: HC on rly project
Times of India | 7 March 2025
123 Kolkata: Private interest was subservient to public interest, stated Calcutta High Court Chief Justice T S Sivagnanam on Thursday as he directed state senior officials to meet Eastern Railway officials to expedite the Tarakeswar-Bishnupur railway line project.
This project has been stalled since 2017 over the proposed construction of railway tracks on a 1.5-km stretch over a water body, named Bhaba Dighi, in Hooghly's Goghat. "Assuming you are more than 250 people having interest in the water body, your interest is a private one. And, 2.5 lakh people will benefit from this project. Your private interest is subservient to public interest," the CJ said. "It is shocking to the conscience of the court that a railway project has been stalled for the past eight years."
The division bench of CJ Sivagnanam and Justice Chaitali Chatterjee (Das) did not accept the pleadings by the counsel of the 284 co-sharers of the water body, who argued that the railway tracks over the water body would harm the environment, damage pisciculture and obstruct the water flow. "Do you know there is a railway line built across the Bay of Bengal? You don't know because you never went out of the state," the Chief Justice said. The counsel for the petitioner fumbled for a reply.
The division bench, while dismissing the public interest litigation (PIL) petition, directed both the state and railways to sort out the problems and start the pending construction within three months from the date of the order. The bench directed the state and the Hooghly SP to provide all support and adequate police force for the completion of the already-delayed project.
The division bench took note of the submission by the state counsel that the project was conceived in 2000-01 when Mamata Banerjee was the railway minister.
Counsel for the railways submitted to the bench that their authorities had held several meetings at the state secretariat in Nabanna to find a solution to the problem but to no avail. The counsel complained that the district administration used Shrabani Mela and some local ceremonies to avoid meeting railway officers. The counsel submitted that the land for the project was already acquired and compensation handed over to the state in 2012. The counsel said the delay led to a huge cost escalation from the initial Rs 479.2 crore to Rs 1,300 crore now.
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