KOLKATA: If all goes well, two Metro trains will chug along the twin tunnels below the Hooghly this Sunday, marking India’s much-awaited maiden under-river journey. It will be another honour for Kolkata, which was the first Indian city to get a Metro in October 1984, some 18 years before Delhi got its first Metro line in December 2002.
Two six-coach trains have been readied for trials between Esplanade and Howrah Maidan, the 4.8km section on which the authorities have decided to begin operations without waiting for the completion of the much-delayed 2.5km Sealdah-Esplanade section.
The 16.6km East-West Metro corridor, or Kolkata Metro’s Green Line, links Sector V in east Kolkata with Howrah Maidan across the river via Sealdah and Esplanade. The section between Sector V and Sealdah is already operational while the construction of the under-river section was completed about a year ago. But the Sealdah-Esplanade section has been much delayed with the area witnessing three major subsidences since August 2019.
Metro Railway officials are confident that the two trains for Sunday’s trial run can be taken from the Salt Lake depot to Howrah Maidan through the east-bound tunnel between Sealdah and Esplanade (it is the west-bound tunnel that witnessed repeated cave-ins and is still incomplete).
Battery loco to pull rakes in cave-in zone
Track-laying in the east-bound tunnel in the Sealdah-Esplanade section on East-West Metro is still incomplete but the gaps have been bridged for now by temporary tracks for the transportation of two trains to Howrah Maidan on Sunday. “Since there will be no East-West Metro service on Sunday, the trains will be taken to Howrah Maidan on that day. Till Sealdah, the trains will travel normally. From Sealdah to Esplanade, they will be pushed by a battery-powered loco since the incomplete tunnel doesn’t have electrified third rails yet. From Esplanade to Howrah Maidan, the trains will travel normally again,” said an official.
Asked if Sunday will be D-Day, KMRC managing director HN Jaiswal said, “There are many technicalities that must fall in place for the trains to be taken across to Howrah Maidan.” On that day, as the rakes travel a distance of 14.5 km from the Salt Lake depot to Howrah Maidan at the other end of the line, it is the passage through the 520-metre tunnel under the river that will be keenly followed by not just KMRC officials but railway enthusiasts across the country. After crossing the river, the trains will pass through Howrah station, the deepest Metro station in the country at 33 metres below the ground.
The date for commencement of commercial service on the Esplanade-Howrah Maidan stretch would depend on the success of the trials and the nod from the Commissioner of Railway Safety. Jaiswal had earlier said they plan to operate a truncated service between the two stations by the end of the year.
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