KOLKATA: Mamata Banerjee may have slammed the budget placed in Parliament by Union finance minister Arun Jaitley, but the total outlay for railway projects for West Bengal has actually gone by over 70% as compared to 2016-17. The 2017-18 outlay for West Bengal is Rs 6,336 crore as compared to Rs 3,820 crore in the previous year. A major chunk of this allocation will go for Metro Railway projects in Kolkata, some of which are nearing completion in a phase-wise manner.While Metro Railway officials are waiting for Friday to know more about the actual allocations, there is some confusion regarding Jaitley's announcement of a new Metro Railway Act and a Metro Railway policy to be announced. The finance minister has hinted that these will encourage greater private partnership in construction and operations of metro projects. Metro Railway, Kolkata is the only metro project in the country that is under Indian Railways.

Source: Times of India February 01, 2017 11:37 UTC