Kolkata: The Kolkata Metro is complying with the recommendations made by the Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS) for commercially commissioning the Esplanade Sealdah stretch of the East-West Corridor.
The 16.6 km East-West Metro Corridor is now functional in two sections. One between Sector V and Sealdah, and the other between Howrah Maidan and Esplanade.
The 2.5 km Esplanade Sealdah section is now ready and is currently complying with the recommendations made by the CRS while approving commercial runs.
This section has seen four incidents of water leakage and soil subsidence since 2019.
Trains between Howrah Maidan and Sector V will be operated in manual mode. Between Sector V and Sealdah, trains were running until recently in the Automatic Train Operations (ATO) system.
Between Howrah Maidan and Esplanade, trains run in the automatic train protection movement (ATPM) or the manual system. The train here is driven by the motorman.
Both manual and automatic modes are parts of the communications-based train control systems, which divide the corridor into moving blocks. The ATO system is an advanced version.
Getting the entire section ready for the automatic motor will take another six months at least.
Using two separate software programs to run trains on the full corridor does not make sense. For now, commercial services between Howrah Maidan and Sector V will run in manual mode.
Six coach rakes are used in East-West Metro, compared to eight coach rakes in other corridors. There are 14 operations trains, all upgraded with ATPM software.
