Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Tuesday said that the announcement about Metro services in Thane city by December is not a “election carrot” ahead of the upcoming civic polls. He further
stated that his party Shiv Sena doesn’t work only during poll season but serves people year-round.
“When Prithviraj Chavan (of Congress) was the Chief Minister, he said Metro was not feasible in Thane. We, the MLAs of the region, agitated, and after Devendra Fadnavis became the CM, the project gained momentum,” stated Shinde.
Shinde also attacked the previous Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government and said that the Metro project in Thane faced various hurdles during that time, which were eventually cleared during his own tenure as the Chief Minister.
“We are aiming to start operations on a 10-kilometre stretch before December,” he said.
Thane Metro project is not an “election carrot”, he said. Local body elections are likely to be held in Maharashtra in the coming months.
The Maharashtra Chief Minister had said earlier that efforts were underway to conduct the trial run of the Metro service in Thane in September, and its full-fledged operations in the city would likely begin by December this year. This will be a part of the Metro 4 corridor, or Yellow Line, which will run from Wadala via Ghatkopar to Kasarvadavali in Thane.
(With agency inputs)
