Ludhiana, June 24: Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee President Capt Amarinder Singh today said that the cabinet approval to the Ludhiana Metro Rail project was just an election stunt and the government had neither any intention nor the capacity to build it for the obvious reasons that it had no money.
Referring to the Ludhiana Metro Rail project Capt Amarinder questioned the timing of the approval when the government was on its last leg and the state was headed for the elections. Besides, the government had also not spelt out as how it will raise huge money for the project which is to cost around Rs ten thousand crores as it was surviving on borrowed money only.The PCC President said, it was just when he had started asking the government to spell out how many election promises it had fulfilled, the cabinet rushed through the approval of the project. He pointed out the government sat over the Detailed Project Report for years and approved it only now on the eve of the elections.
The former Chief Minister said, metro rail in cities like Ludhiana will always be welcome but the Akali-BJP government was neither sincere nor serious about this project. “The very fact that the project was approved by the cabinet when the government had only few months left in office and no money in its coffers speaks volumes about its (government’s) intent”, he said, while adding, it will hardly make any difference whether the DPR submitted by the DMRC to Punjab government remained in the files or was approved by the cabinet as the project is not going to take off at this stage when the government is at its fag end.
Moreover, he added, the Ludhiana Municipal Corporation had also questioned the financial viability of the project, but government went ahead with the cabinet approval as it knew that it was doing it only on the papers.