First Underwater Metro In Kolkata
The country’s underwater metro commenced in Kolkata on Friday with hundreds of passengers erupting into jubilation on their first ride. The Prime Minister inaugurated the Kolkata Metro’s Esplanade-Howrah Maidan section, marking the inauguration of India’s first underwater transportation tunnel. Hundreds of commuters thronged the stations in the early morning to be part of the “first-day first underwater metro” bandwagon.
At Howrah Maidan station, passengers were seen standing in a long queue in the morning to get a ticket, while the authorities greeted them with rose stems at Esplanade station.
The Howrah Maidan-Esplanade section underwater Metro line has the first transportation tunnel under a river in the country. It passes under the Hooghly River and has India’s deepest Metro station at Howrah (30 meter deep).
As the train entered the under-river stretch, a glimpse of the illumination of the tunnel wall under the Hooghly River greeted the commuters, giving the effects of water around the moving rake.
The under-river section of the tunnel is 520 meters long, and a train took around 45 seconds to cross it. The Howrah Maidan-Esplanade section is also touted as the first transportation tunnel under any mighty river in India and has the deepest metro station at Howrah.
The work for the East-West corridor began in 2009 and tunneling under the Hooghly River started in 2017. Meanwhile, the corridor’s Salt Lake Sector V to Sealdah stretch has already been commercially operational.
Presently, the Kolkata Metro network spans a 47.93 km stretch including 32.13 km of North-South Corridor, 9.3 km of East-West Corridor, and 6.5 km of Joka-Esplanade Corridor.
An extension of 13.27 km has also been envisaged. Of this, a 4.80 km stretch of East-West Metro from Howrah Maidan to Esplanade was inaugurated by PM on March 6 along with another extension of 1.25 km from Taratala to Majerhat and a 5.4 km stretch of New Metro Corridor from Kavi Subhas to Hemanta Mukhopadhyay.
It’s a historical experience for all the Indians and a very proud moment for all of us. We are fortunate enough to witness this miracle.
