East-West Metro corridor construction to be over by year-end: Official

Raising hopes of completion of construction of the whole length of the East-West Metro Railway corridor from Salt Lake Sector V to Howrah Maidan by the year-end, an official on Sunday said that all arrangements have been made to address problems in disaster-hit Bowbazar.

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. Two more water leakage incidents at the same site in 2022 have delayed completion of the project.

"All the arrangements have been made to address the issue and work at Bowbazar will be over by December, 2023," the Metro official said.

Except for Bowbazar, construction work in other sections of the corridor is almost complete.

Roop N Sunkar, Member Infrastructure of Railway Board, on Sunday visited the disaster-hit area and expressed satisfaction with the progress of work there.

"I feel that whatever planning they have done, the way they are progressing they will be able to meet the target," he said.

The senior Metro official said that after the completion of the construction work, trial runs will be held in the stretch, following which the Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS) inspection will be conducted.

It is only after a go-ahead is received from the CRS that commercial services on a railway line can commence, he said.

Kolkata Metro created history on April 12 when its rake ran through a tunnel under a river, the Hooghly, for the first time in the country.

According to Metro General Manager P Uday Kumar Reddy, trial runs between Howrah Maidan and Esplanade stations will be conducted for the next five to seven months, following which regular services on this stretch will begin.

Sunkar conducted a trolley inspection from Howrah Maidan to Esplanade Metro stations, travelling through the tunnel under the river, Metro Railway spokesperson Kausik Mitra said.

At Esplanade Metro station, he checked the passenger inter-changing arrangements to be made available with the north-south line, once East-West Metro starts commercial services between Sealdah to Howrah Maidan, Mitra said.

He also inspected the stretch from Sealdah to Salt Lake Sector V of East-West Metro corridor in a train. This stretch is commercially operational at present.

Out of the 16.6 km length of East-West Metro, the underground corridor constitutes 10.8 km between Howrah Maidan and Phoolbagan with the tunnel passing below the Hooghly river, while the rest is elevated corridor, according to the KMRC, the executing agency of the project.