Kolkata, Aug 5 - The West Bengal government Wednesday requested Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee to hand over the excess railway land to the state government for developing small and medium-scale industries.

'We, on behalf of the department for state cottage and small-scale industries, sent a letter to Mamata Banerjee, requesting her to hand over the excess land of the railways to the state government. We are interested to set up small and medium-scale industries there,' state Cottage and Small-scale Industry Minister Manab Mukherjee told IANS.

'We can set up these projects on our own or we can also go for joint ventures with the railways if the union minister wants,' he said.

'We came to know from the newspapers that the railways minister is interested to use railway land for industrial purpose.