Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday said she would not, at any cost, allow the demolition of the skywalk that leads to the Dakshineswar Kali temple.
Metro Railway wants the skywalk demolished, she said, citing a letter sent to the state government by the railways in November.
The skywalk takes visitors to the temple gate from outside Dakshineswar Metro station.
“Amar rokto thakte ami Dakshineswar-er skywalk bhangte debo na (Till blood runs in my veins, I will not allow the demolition of the Dakshineswar skywalk),” Mamata asserted at a news conference at Nabanna.
“It took a lot of pain to build it. It took eight to 10 meetings. Many people, including hawkers, were involved. I had to persuade them and make alternative arrangements for them. The skywalk was built to clear the snarl at Dakshineswar. The shrine is visited by hundreds of thousands of pilgrims. The skywalk is a treasure of my heart (hridayer mani-muktar moto),” she said.
The 340m skywalk was opened around Diwali in 2018.
In a veiled barb to the hype created by the BJP and its ecosystem in the run-up to the consecration ceremony at the Ram temple in Ayodhya, Mamata said performing rituals was not the government’s job.
“Consecration is not our job. It is the job of the priests. Our job is to develop infrastructure,” she said.
“I will extend all help. But I will not allow demolition of valuable heritage. Dakshineswar has not come up today. If you lay your hands on the Dakshineswar skywalk, you have to remember Swami Vivekananda and Ramakrishna. You have to remember crores of devotees. I will not allow it (demolition) at any cost,” she said.
This newspaper reported that Metro Railway had sought 90m of land from the state government near the Dakshineswar station to extend the viaduct to increase operational efficiency. Metro officials had said they also wanted to “modify” the skywalk and widen the road below once they got the land.
The letter Mamata cited was dated November 20, 2023. It went from Railway Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL), the implementing agency of the Noapara-Dakshineswar Metro corridor, to the secretary of the state public works department.
It said a “detailed topographic survey along with feasibility study have already been conducted as desired by Metro Railway to relocate the existing utilities such as entry exit structure of Skywalk, connecting ramp or FOB etc, which are infringing the proposed extension of Metro viaduct”.
“It is requested to accord in-principle approval for clearance/shifting of various structural utilities which are infringing the proposed extension of Metro viaduct so that further action can be taken by Metro Railway/RVNL for execution of instant work.”
The Noapara-Dakshineswar section was inaugurated on February 22, 2021, and thrown open for commercial services the next day. Now, Dakshineswar is the terminal station in the north on the north-south Metro corridor, also known as the Blue Line.
Another letter was sent from the RVNL to the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority, which has built the skywalk.
“Dakshineswar has a problem. There is a space constraint. There is no space after the platform ends. So, there is a speed restriction (for trains). We want to extend the length. We have sought 90m of land from the state government,” Metro general manager P. Uday Kumar Reddy told a news conference on January 12.
Contacted on Tuesday, Reddy declined comment on the issue.
An RVNL official said: “We are just the implementing agency. We will do whatever we are asked to do.”
Requesting anonymity, a Metro official said: “There is a misunderstanding. We never asked for demolition of the entire skywalk. We just need some modifications. The railways will execute all the work if the state gives a go ahead.”
State urban development minister Firhad Hakim had pointed out on January 13 that Metro Railway had not objected to the construction of the skywalk despite being consulted. “We took an NOC (no-objection certificate) from Metro during the construction. They gave us their drawing. It is then that we built the skywalk spending so much money,” he said.
The skywalk took two years to build. But planning and discussion with the railways went on much longer, said sources in the government. A section of Metro officials blamed the RVNL for the problem. “The RVNL did a shoddy job. They took shortcuts. We needed only 90m of extra land. It should have been arranged at the time of the construction of the station itself,” said one of them.
Bodyguard Lines
On Tuesday, Mamata also said that the railways wanted the Alipore Bodyguard Lines demolished for the construction of the Joka-Esplanade Metro corridor. She said she would not allow that, either.
“They are now saying that the Bodyguard Lines have to be demolished for them to go ahead with the Behala (Joka-Esplanade) work. Why should I demolish Bodyguard Lines, which counts as police heritage?”
“We have spent crores on the drainage and sewerage system in that area in Ekbalpore. Police families live there,” the chief minister said.
She said there is no dearth of space for Metro projects.
“There is ample space. If asked, I can show them the places. We will extend full cooperation. But we will not allow the demolition,” she said.
Mamata said she, in her multiple stints as railway minister, had been instrumental behind all the major Metro projects in and around Kolkata.
“I left in 2009. Fifteen years have passed. All they have done is build a small portion, inaugurate it and paste pictures everywhere,” she said.
An official at the RVNL, the implementing agency of the Joka-Esplanade Metro corridor, said the agency had already taken residents and the Calcutta Municipal Corporation on board for Metro work at Bodyguard Lines. “We have already paid crores of rupees to build new homes for the residents. We are also paying close to Rs 100 crore to the civic body for utility diversions,” he said.
The Joka-Mominpore section of the Joka-Esplanade project is elevated. From Mominpore, the corridor goes underground.