- Tuesday, February 25, 2025
The country’s first-ever metro railway service was also started in the eastern city in 1984.
By: Shubham Ghosh
INDIAN prime minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday (6) will inaugurate the country’s inaugural underriver metro service in Kolkata, the capital of the eastern state of West Bengal.
Marking a monumental development aimed at transforming urban transportation, the prime minister will flag off a series of key metro and rapid transport projects across the country over the next few days and the project in Kolkata is one of them.
The section of Kolkata Metro, between Howrah Maidan and Esplanade, features the first-ever transportation tunnel in India to pass under Hooghly, a tributary of the River Ganges, setting up a milestone in the country’s infrastructure development.
Besides the under-water tunnel, Modi will also inaugurate a couple of sections in India’s oldest metro network which was started in 1984. The network initially connected Kolkata’s northern and southern parts and now, a new connectivity has been inaugurated between the eastern and western parts. The under-river section is part of the East-West section which involved an expenditure of Rs 9,000 crore.
In April last year, the Metro Railway authorities in Kolkata undertook a trial run of the train under the river with engineers. More runs were conducted over the next few months before it was prepared to be inaugurated.
The tunnel that was constructed under the river has an internal diameter of 5.55 metres and external diameter of 6.1 metres. The construction was completed with the help of two tunnel-boring machines made in Germany. They finished the task in a record 66 days. The task was daunting as the officials had to ensure that there was no leakage of water into the tunnel and that old and historic constructions that are located at the zone of operation were not affected by the drilling work.
Modi will also lay the foundation stone for the extension of phase 1 of Pune Metro Rail project between Pimpri Chinchwad Metro and Nigdi, promising continued expansion and enhancement of urban transit infrastructure.
