PM Modi inaugurated the Kolkata Metro Railway’s Howrah Maidan-Esplanade, Kavi Subhash-Hemanta Mukhopadhyay and the Taratala-Majerhat metro sections
Kolkata: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his visit to West Bengal, inaugurated the Howrah Maidan-Esplanade section of Kolkata Metro’s East-West corridor. The officials have now informed that the Kolkata Metro Railway will start commercial operations in seven to 10 days in the three sections.
According to an official release, the 4.8-km stretch of the East-West Metro has been built at a cost of Rs 4,965 crore and will have the deepest Metro station in India at Howrah – 30 metres below the ground level. The corridor will help connect key areas such as the IT hub Salt Lake Sector V.
PM Modi inaugurated the Kolkata Metro Railway’s Howrah Maidan-Esplanade, Kavi Subhash-Hemanta Mukhopadhyay and the Taratala-Majerhat metro sections. “Commercial services will commence in all the three sections within seven to 10 days,” Metro Railway spokesperson Kaushik Mitra told PTI.
All You Need To Know About Howrah Maidan-Esplanade Section:
- The Howrah Maidan-Esplanade section of the East-West Metro corridor has the first transportation tunnel under “any mighty river in India”.
- It passes under the River Hooghly, on the east and west banks of which are situated Kolkata and Howrah cities
- The 4.8 km stretch between Howrah Maidan and Esplanade is the second section of the East-West Metro corridor between Howrah Maidan and Information Technology hub Salt Lake Sector V which will have commercial operations.
- With this, only the Esplanade-Sealdah stretch of the East-West alignment is left to be completed.
- Metro Railway general manager P Uday Kumar Reddy had earlier said it is targeting June-July this year to start commercial operation in the entire route of the-West alignment.
Completion of the project has suffered delays owing to an aquifer burst at Bowbazar in central Kolkata on August 31, 2019, leading to severe ground subsidence and the collapse of a number of buildings there and two more water leakage incidents at the same site in 2022 during tunnelling and construction work.
The Salt Lake Sector V to Sealdah stretch of the East-West Metro corridor is commercially operational at present.
Metro services in the 6.5 km stretch between Joka and Taratala of the Joka-Esplanade project are already operational and will be available to passengers up to Majerhat soon.
Commercial operations in the 5.4-km Kavi Subhash-Hemanta Mukhopadhyay section of the 30-km long Kavi Subhash-Airport metro line will also start soon in the first phase.