East-West Metro may be operational by 2018: Suresh Prabhu

Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu today said he was hopeful that the East-West Metro would be operational by June 2018.

"The road blocks for the East-West Metro project have been addressed and it can be ready within two-and-half year's time... Hopefully we will be able to run trains by June 2018," Prabhu said after flagging off new trains for the South Eastern Railway here at the Howrah station.

The Railway minister also announced Green Energy initiatives in stations and rakes of Metro Railway to reduce carbon footprint for a cleaner environment.

On the occasion, Prabhu announced the commencement of work of lowering of tunnel boring machine and recommencement of casting of tunnel segments at the Howrah Maidan for the East-West Metro project.

Earlier, he flagged off three new trains - Howrah-Yesvantpur Weekly AC Express, Howrah-Pune Suvidha AC Express and Panskura-Digha EMU train services - of South Eastern Railway besides five new train services and extension of four existing local trains.

The Railway Minister also launched a mobile app for paperless ticketing system for the suburban services of Eastern Railway and also inaugurated the display of the first AC Electric Locomotive at the Regional Rail Museum at Howrah.