CM may open key bridge on 2-day Jangalmahal tour

Midnapore: Ahead of her all-crucial February 12 party governing council meeting where she is likely to roll out the formal campaign for 2016 assembly polls, chief minister Mamata Banerjee may drop in to West Midnapore for a two-day tour to keep a promise she had made four and a half years back.
Two months after her party triumphed the 2011 assembly polls, she had promised locals of Nayagram a bridge, one that will cut their travel time to either Midnapore or Kharagpur by over an hour and distance by over 60 kilometers.She will reach Nayagram on the night of February 10.
On February 11, the chief minister will inngurate the three-kilometer-long and 11-metre wide bridge built at a cost of Rs 111.90 crore. Work here had started in May 4, 2012. After the bridge on Subarnarekha river (locally called the Bhoshraghat bridge) is inaugurated, one won't need to take the circuitous and long winding road to the district sub-division (Kharagpur) and headquarters (Midnapore). Such is the remoteness of this place that it is easier to rush the ailing to Baripada hospital in Odisha, than to Jhargram sub-divisional hospital. "Mamata has done what the CPM-led government chose to ignore over the past 34 years," said Nayagram MLA Dulal Murmu.
In this visit, Mamata will travel by a chopper from Jhargram to Nayagram's Dahighat. By doing this she will also replicate former chief minister Sidhartha Shankar Ray, the first chief minister to travel to these parts, who also used a chopper then - in 1975. Mamata during her earlier visits to Nayagram chose to travel by road.
This bridge also has its share of controversies. Winning polls on a development plank, this formed a part of a strategy by Mamata to announce several development projects at one-go.
The chief minister's next stop - on the evening of February 11 - is likely to be Lalgarh. Here she is likely to inngurate another bridge over river Kasai. This 950-meter long bridge was built at a record pace. Work here started in December 2012. Though Rs 60 crore was earmarked for this bridge, only Rs 50 crore had to be spent on it. This will cut down travel time from Lalgarh to Jhargram and Midnapore by 10 kilometers.