Kolkata is launching India's First Underwater Metro by Next Month

‘City of Joy’ Kolkata is all set to welcome India’s first under water Metro which will allow commuters to travel across the Hooghly River which separates West Bengal's capital from Howrah. The construction work is going on in full swing, and will be completed shortly.

The Kolkata Metro Rail authority is hurriedly completing all their pending work to kick-start the operation.  The track spreads across 4.8-km-long stretch of East-West Metro, whose starts from Howrah Maidan and it will continue till Esplanade. It is expected to be opened for the general public by next month. 

The authorities have constructed a tunnel under the river Hooghly with an internal diameter of 5.55 meters and external diameters of 6.1 meters. The construction of the tunnel is completed with the help of a tunnel-boring machine (TBM). The German-made TBMs named Prerna and Rachna finished the task in a record 66 days. 

At present, only Sealdah to Salt Lake Sector-V stretch of the East-West corridor is in operation. After the commencement of operation in the whole corridor, three new stations will be added, namely, Howrah Maidan, Howrah station complex, and BBD Bagh (Mahakaran).

The East-West Metro Corridor in Kolkata includes a tunnel that spans 520 meters and connects the IT hub of Salt Lake Sector V in the east to Howrah Maidan in the west, crossing the river. By taking this metro route, the travel time between Howrah and Sealdah can be reduced to 40 minutes compared to 1.5 hours by road, which will also help alleviate traffic congestion at both ends.

The stretch has a total of eight stations – Sealdah, Phoolbagan, Salt Lake stadium, Bengal Chemical, City Centre, Central Park, Karunamoyee, and Salt Lake Sector-V, of these, the Howrah Metro station would be the deepest Metro station in India.