Prime Minister to inaugurate the new sections on March 06

The wait is over for Kolkata Metro to create history once again. Prime Minister Narendra
Modi will be inaugurating India's first under-river metro tunnel tomorrow that will run
underneath the Hooghly and connect Howrah Maidan to Esplanade. The Prime Minister
will also inaugurate the Kavi Subhash-Hemanta Mukhopadhyay section as well as the
Taratala-Majerhat metro sections. These are bring done “with a focus on enhancing
avenues for ensuring ease of urban mobility". With the commencement of the
underwater route, Kolkata will join the elite club of cities like London, Munich, and
Moscow which have similar stretches plying partly underneath rivers.
Here are some interesting features of the new Metro connections coming up in the city:
 Kolkata Metro's Howrah Maidan-Esplanade section is poised to be the first
transportation tunnel "under any mighty river in India".
 The Howrah metro station will also be the deepest (in terms of being
underneath ground level) in India.
 The Howrah Maidan-Esplanade section passes under the Hooghly, the
ancient river that has been a prominent feature on the landscape of both
Kolkata and Howrah, its twin city.
 Kolkata Metro created history in April 2023, when for the very first time in
the country, its rake ran through a tunnel under the Hooghly.
 The 4.8 km stretch between Howrah Maidan and Esplanade will be the
second section of the East-West Metro corridor between Howrah Maidan
and the IT hub Salt Lake Sector V.
 This is expected to cover a 520-metre stretch under the river Hooghly to be
covered in 45 seconds.
 The Esplanade-Sealdah stretch of the East-West alignment is currently
awaiting completion.
 The Salt Lake Sector V to Sealdah stretch of the East-West Metro corridor
is commercially operational at present.

 The metro works on Automatic Train Operation (ATO) system. In this mode,
the train operates under the supervision and control without any
intervention from the human in charge of operations, that is, the train
operator, in this case. the ATO mode, the Metro train moves from one
station to the next station automatically after a long press of 'ATO
departure' push button by the motorman. A train’s doors and PSD open
automatically after arrival at the next station.
Out of the total 16.6 km length of the East-West Metro, the underground
corridor constitutes 10.8 km between Howrah Maidan and Phoolbagan
including the tunnel under the Hooghly. The rest of the stretch will be an
elevated corridor.
Kolkata Metro is targeting June-July to start commercial operation in the
entire route of East-West alignment between Salt Lake Sector V and
Howrah Maidan.
Underwater stretch to be commercially operational in couple of months
Planning to hop on for an experience of travelling through the tunnel under the
Hooghly? You will have to wait just a little while longer. P Uday Kumar Reddy, the Metro
Railway General Manager, has informed the media that the months of June-July of the
year 2024 have been targeted to commence the commercial operation in the complete
route of the East-West alignment. Currently, the East-West Metro corridor's Salt Lake
Sector V to Sealdah stretch is commercially operational.