Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday, March 6, inaugurated India's first underwater metro rail service — Howrah Maidan-Esplanade section — in Kolkata. The 4.8-km stretch has been built at a cost of ₹4,965 crore.
The Metro train is expected to traverse the 520-metre stretch under the river in just 45 seconds. "This corridor, once fully commissioned, will also solve the perennial traffic congestion and improve air quality by reducing carbon footprint," the Metro Railway said in a statement.
Here is all you need to know:
The Howrah Maidan-Esplanade section (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, respectively.
Uday Kumar Reddy, General Manager, Kolkata Metro Railway, told ANI, "...We are travelling about 16 metres below the level of the river water. It is a marvel. We are expecting a daily ridership of 7 lakh."
Kolkata Metro created history in April 2023, when its rake ran through a tunnel under a river, the Hooghly, for the first time in the country.
The Howrah metro station is also the deepest in India.
The 4.8-km stretch between Howrah Maidan and Esplanade is the second section of the East-West Metro corridor between Howrah Maidan and IT hub Salt Lake Sector V.
Out of the total 16.6 km length of the East-West Metro, the underground corridor constitutes 10.8 km between Howrah Maidan and Phoolbagan, with the tunnel under the Hooghly River. The rest of the stretch is an elevated corridor.
According to researchers, the idea of having an underwater transportation system on the lines of London was first mooted by the British in 1921. "But the idea did not see the light of the day as soil tests did not yield positive results. They were forced to abandon the idea and the project plan was shelved," Aloke Kumar, Associate Professor of IIM-Calcutta, told PTI.
The work for the East-West corridor began in 2009 and tunneling under Hooghly commenced in 2017. The project has suffered delays owing to an aquifer burst at Bowbazar in central Kolkata on August 31, 2019, leading to severe ground subsidence, the collapse of several buildings there and two more water leakage incidents at the same site in 2022 during tunneling and construction work.With inputs from PTI
First Published: Mar 5, 2024 4:43 PM IST
