Mamata as Railway minister knew about blacklisting of IVRCL: BJP

The BJP today hit out at Mamata Banerjee alleging that she allowed Hyderabad-based IVRCL to continue with the construction of Vivekananda flyover, which partially collapsed two day ago claiming 26 lives, despite knowing that the company was “blacklisted”.

“When Banerjee was Railway Minister in 2011, a contract was awarded to a joint venture (JV) in which IVRCL was a partner for constructing a tunnel in Jammu and Kashmir,” BJP national secretary and co-observer for West Bengal Siddharth Nath Singh said.

He said soon after the flyover collapse here on March 31, which left 26 killed and 89 injured and being constructed by IVRCL, Banerjee was quick to say that the work was awarded to the company by the former Left Front government in 2009 when it was already blacklisted.

“Will the Chief Minister answer why the Railway ministry gave the work to the JV company for the tunnel project in 2011 when it was already blacklisted and was on CBI radar following irregularities in house building scam?” Singh questioned.

Quoting an IRCON document, he said the tunnelling project started during the subsequent two TMC Railway ministers followed by Congress incumbents.

The Railway Board scrapped the project in 2014 due to poor progress just before NDA came to power, Singh claimed quoting the document.

Singh said after TMC came to power in West Bengal in 2011, the government again reviewed Vivekananda flyover project and gave its nod to the IVRCL to continue with the work.

“There is a suspicion of a quid pro quo as it was later revealed after the collapse that a company close to the TMC was a sub-contractor for the project,” Singh claimed.

Singh demanded that Banerjee should go for a CBI inquiry or a court-monitored investigation into the flyover collapse.