Revealed: Mamata Banerjee Stalled Key Strategic Project For 13 Years — Acted Only After New Delhi’s Warning

Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had been sitting for 13 long years on a key strategic project that aims to facilitate swift movement of soldiers and military hardware to the Indo-Tibet border in Sikkim and other vital defence installations in the Dooars area of North Bengal.

The project — a four-lane road bridge over the Teesta river at Sevoke in North Bengal — was first proposed by the Union government in January 2012.

New Delhi even sanctioned Rs 50 lakh to the Bengal government for the preparation of a detailed project report (DPR) for the bridge that will run parallel to an existing railway bridge.

But, despite repeated reminders, the Bengal government sat on the proposal. It is learnt that the file has been pending with the Bengal Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) since 2012, with Banerjee herself refusing to clear it.

A senior officer of the state home department told Swarajya that the project remained pending because of the Chief Minister’s reluctance to acquire land for the project. 

But that’s only half the truth; the land required for the project is mostly government land, with only a small portion held by private individuals. And convincing the latter to part with their land for a strategically important project would not have been difficult at all.

The main reason, admitted government sources, has been Banerjee’s default position of opposing anything proposed by the Union government.

A former Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, who served in the state government, told Swarajya that whenever the proposal for the bridge was taken up with the Chief Minister, she would simply brush it aside and tell officials to keep it on hold.

“Whenever she would be told about it (the project), she would either remain silent or ask officials to put it on the backburner. She would also get irritated when officers would bring up the Union government’s reminders (about the project) with her,” said the former bureaucrat who retired a few months ago. 

Even though the Centre sent at least six reminders over the past 12 years, Banerjee remained unmoved.

Exasperated by the delay and keen on starting work on the project, the Union government issued a stern warning to the Bengal government late last week.

The state government was told that if the approval for the project, which will cost over Rs 1,125 crore, was not granted soon, the project would be handed over to the Border Roads Organisation (BRO).

The Bengal government was also warned that delaying a project that has high strategic importance would have adverse consequences.

Scared that the project will go out of her hands, as well as of the adverse publicity she would get once the unreasonable delay on her government’s part becomes public, Banerjee hastily granted the necessary approval earlier this week.

The Chief Minister has asked the state public works department (PWD), which will implement the project, to prepare a DPR at the earliest and submit it to the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH). 

Banerjee now wants the DPR to be prepared within a six-month timeframe. Getting approval for the DPR from the MoRTH, which will be keen to fast-track the project, will not take time. It is expected that work on the project will start by the last quarter of this year and will be completed within two years.

Strategic Importance of the Proposed Bridge

There is, at present, just one bridge over the fast-flowing Teesta river that originates in Sikkim.

Construction of this bridge, known as the Coronation Bridge, to mark the coronation of King George VI of England in December 1936, started in early 1937 and was completed in 1941. 

Since then, it has remained the only road link between the Dooars (and the North East) and the rest of the country.

The Coronation Bridge, which is part of the National Highway 31C, is a narrow one (width of only 6.7 metres) and has suffered a lot of wear and tear over the last 84 years.

The bridge suffered structural damages during the 2011 Sikkim earthquake, and restrictions were imposed on vehicular traffic. Only vehicles weighing up to 1 tonne were since allowed to cross the bridge.

This meant that the bridge became out of bounds for heavy vehicles, including multi-axle ones carrying field guns, tanks, and other military hardware, since 2011.

That was why the Centre proposed the construction of a new bridge that would run along the existing railway bridge over the Teesta about 7 kilometres (km) downstream from the Coronation Bridge. 

The Dooars has a number of defence establishments, including an important Indian Air Force (IAF) base and infantry, artillery, and armoured corps units.

After traffic restrictions were imposed on the Coronation Bridge following the 2011 earthquake, heavy military vehicles had been using the more circuitous National Highway 27 and the Gajaldoba Barrage bridge over the Teesta to reach the defence establishments in the Dooars. 

The Gajaldoba bridge was never built for heavy vehicles, and concerns had been raised by engineers often about the bridge over the barrage suffering serious structural damages due to the movement of heavy vehicles.

New Route to Sikkim

Sikkim holds immense strategic importance. It shares a 220-km-long border with Chinese-occupied Tibet. 

Though this section is the only part of the 3,488 km-long Indo-Tibet border that is not disputed, Chinese troops have made attempts to cross the border. There have been skirmishes between Indian and Chinese soldiers at a few places in this section of the international border. 

The primary access to Sikkim is through the National Highway 10, which skirts the banks of the Teesta. But this mountainous highway is highly vulnerable to rain-induced landslides and remains cut off for days at a stretch during the monsoon season.

At such times, the only access to Sikkim for heavy vehicles carrying military equipment is through the Dooars. The National Highway 717A, which connects Oodalbari in the Dooars to Sikkim, is the preferred route for heavy vehicles.

The proposed 1.3-km bridge over the Teesta will ease the movement of military equipment and personnel to Sikkim through NH 717A and will be an attractive alternative to NH 10, which is not only two-lane and poses navigational challenges for heavy and multi-axle vehicles but also gets blocked frequently because of landslides. 

New Delhi’s Warning to Bengal

The Union government had proposed construction of the new bridge in early 2012, after the 2011 earthquake had damaged the Coronation Bridge.

The matter assumed greater urgency after the Doklam standoff in 2017. The confrontation with the Chinese army underscored the need for quicker movement of military personnel and hardware to the border with Tibet. 

Doklam, at the tri-junction of India, Bhutan, and Tibet, is just about 30 km north of the Dooars. The proposed bridge over the Teesta will, say strategic experts, make it possible to move men and material very quickly to the border in times of emergency. 

The Centre redoubled its efforts to get the Bengal government’s approval for the bridge since 2017 but to no avail.

The fall of the Sheikh Hasina government in Bangladesh and the resultant rise of Islamist forces in that country, coupled with Pakistan making a comeback there, made the Union government sit up. 

The need to improve access to the Dooars, which is sandwiched between Bhutan and Bangladesh, was underlined by security experts. 

New Delhi decided that enough leeway had been given to Banerjee and no more delays would be accepted. This was conveyed in very clear terms to the Bengal government, along with the message that there would be no compromises with the country’s security.

The Bengal government was told that if a sanction for the proposed bridge was not granted immediately, not only would the project be handed over to the BRO, the consequences for the feet-dragging over the project would be grave.

Faced with this dire warning and ultimatum, Banerjee caved in. Not only did she give the green signal, she also instructed the state PWD to move fast and prepare the DPR.

That’s not all. The Chief Minister also approved a proposal to acquire land for a Border Security Force (BSF) outpost at Karimpur in Nadia district. 

The BSF wants to set up 74 additional border outposts (BOPs) in Bengal, but the state government has not acquired the land required for the purpose. It has been stonewalling the BSF’s requests for land.

State government officials said that the Chief Minister has asked the revenue and other departments to start identifying land for setting up the remaining 73 BOPs and initiate the process of land acquisition. 

This is also the result of the stern warning that Banerjee received from the Union government.