KOLKATA, INDIA: West Bengal Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee wasn't merely paying lip service when he announced the Light Transit Rail System.

He is serious about making his dream project come true and the chief minister's secretariat is busy compiling papers to float the global tender by this week.

The government will invite applications from BOT operators having experience in executing such projects.

They will get "permissive possession" of the government land coming under the proposed mass rapid transit route with magnetic levitation.

Two stretches are under consideration — between Joka and Barasat, and between Naihati and Namkhana. The high-power committee comprising chief traffic and transportation engineer Bibhas Kumar Sadhu, KMC commissioner Debashis Som, joint commissioner of police (traffic) Banibrata Basu and chief executive officer, KMDA, Alapan Bandyopadhyay is looking into the tender specifications.

"It all depends on the amount of land the government has to acquire for the project and the cost involved. However, the stretch from Joka to Barasat would be less costly because much of the land along the route is with the government and has been allocated to the Light Transit Rail Light System," an official from the CM's secretariat said.

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