Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate India's first underwater metro service in Kolkata on Wednesday. The metro tunnel, beneath the mighty Hooghly River, is a remarkable feat of engineering that spans a distance of 16.6 kilometers. The underwater metro will connect Howrah and Salt Lake, and will have six stations, three of which are underground.
The Howrah Maidan-Esplanade section with the first transportation tunnel "under any mighty river in India" will have the deepest Metro station in India at the Howrah Metro station.
In April last year, Kolkata Metro's rakes completed a trial journey under the bed of river Hooghly through a tunnel 32 metres below water level for the first time in India. "Although the inauguration will take place tomorrow, the passenger services will begin at a later date," CPRO Metro Railways Kaushik Mitra.
The 4.8-kilometer stretch between Howrah Maidan and Esplanade forms a vital segment of the East-West Metro corridor, connecting key areas like the IT hub Salt Lake Sector V. Of the total 16.6 kilometres of the East-West Metro, 10.8 kilometres consist of an underground corridor, including the groundbreaking tunnel beneath the Hooghly River.
A metro train is expected to traverse a 520-metre stretch under the river in just 45 seconds. The work for the East-West Metro corridor began in 2009 and the work for tunneling under River Hooghly began in 2017.
Completion of 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 tunnelling and construction work.
The Salt Lake Sector V to Sealdah stretch of the East-West Metro corridor is commercially operational at present.
During the visit, the PM will also inaugurate the Kavi Subhash-Hemanta Mukhopadhyay and the Taratala-Majerhat Metro sections.
(With inputs from PTI)