Didi recalls how she laid ground for metro expansion in ‘nostalgic’ post
Times of India | 23 August 2025
Kolkata: A ‘nostalgic' CM Mamata Banerjee took to X on Friday to talk about how she had led the expansion of Kolkata's metro connectivity, hours before Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in the city to flag-off new services on three separate stretches of the metro network.
The CM had earlier already decided to skip Modi's unveiling of infrastructure projects in Bengal, including the metro services.
Banerjee has held the railways ministry portfolio twice — first in the NDA govt under Atal Bihari Vajpayee between 1999 and 2001 and for a second time in the UPA govt from 2009 to 2011. It was in her second stint as railways minister that she sanctioned a series of metro expansion projects across Kolkata. | Gold Rates Today in Kolkata | Silver Rates Today in Kolkata"Allow me to be a little nostalgic today. As the Railways Minister of India, I was fortunate in planning and sanctioning a series of metro railway corridors in metropolitan Kolkata. I drew the blueprints, arranged the funds, initiated the works, and ensured that the different ends of the city (Joka, Garia, Airport, Sector V, etc.) were connected by an intra-city metro grid," she wrote on X.
Banerjee said she had continued her efforts for expansion of the metro even after she became CM.
"Later, as the chief minister of West Bengal, I had the additional privilege of taking part in the execution of the projects. From the state, I arranged free land, paved roads, arranged rehabilitation of displaced people, removed impediments, and ensured all help in the execution of projects. Our chief secretaries successively held a series of coordination meetings to ensure integration of execution agencies. My planning, as Railways Minister, got fulfilment in my participation in execution," the CM wrote on her X handle.
She ended her post saying: "Expanding metro infrastructure has been a long journey for me. Allow me some nostalgia today.