Mamata Banerjee may have said she would not allow privatisation of Indian railways, but that does not mean she is chary of wooing foreign investors to fund ambitious expansion plans for railways.
After the second part of the budget session ends, didi plans to take an investment-seeking road show to New York, London and Japan. The Asian giant is giving money for the railway’s ambitious dedicated freight corridor.
“Didi is normally averse to foreign trips but she might make an exception because of the promises made in the budget and the fact that she will have no time for any of these next year when assembly elections happen in Bengal,” one of Banerjee’s aide’s said. The railway minister plans to add a network of 25,000 km of lines in the next 10 years.
The only thing that might rain on this plan is the political violence in West Bengal, Maoist or otherwise. “The party is literally at war there, and anything might happen,” said the aide. A summer jaunt to Europe may be just the thing to cool down the mercurial Mamata Banerjee.
