Kolkata Metro Update

The Railway Board has agreed in principle to the proposed extension of the north-south Metro to Dakshineswar. But the state government, which is to bear one-third of the Rs 537-crore project cost, has refused to bear the cost of the rakes included in the project cost. The 6.7-km extension of tracks will have three more stations at Noapara, Baranagar and Dakshineswar, one of the major pilgrimage spots in the state. The extension, Metro authorities said, would take much pressure off the roads in the northern fringes of Kolkata. The state MPs were strongly lobbying for the extension. The state government has also agreed to bear one-third of the project cost. The extension will be significant as a mass transit system network is desperately needed across the city." Greater the length it covers, the more it will be used," said a transport department official. But the major problem of the project right now is the state’s refusal to bear the cost of the rakes. A senior Metro official said: “Any extension project entails addition of rakes. So, the cost of rakes is naturally included in the project cost. But the government is only interested in paying one-third of the construction cost.” Significantly, the cost of the Metro extension project at the southern end, from Tollygunge to Garia, has shot up because of the delay. MP Amitabha Nandi, who strongly lobbied with the ministry of railway for the project, said: “Another arm of the north-south Metro might extend till the airport. The Metro authority is carrying out a study for the project. In that case, the Metro might not have to bear the entire project cost as there is an elevated track till the airport from the Dum Dum Cantonment station.” The Metro authorities want to utilize the elevated tracks from Dum Dum Cantonment to the airport, which is now being used by only two EMUs a day. The Metro railway engineers said the extension can be done with certain modifications in the traction system and by redesigning the platform. According to the plan, the trains would go on to Noapara car shed after being emptied at Dum Dum station. The Metro authorities proposed that a station may be constructed at Noapara. From there, an underground corridor would be constructed, which would finally meet the elevated track near the Dum Dum Cantonment station. The Metro authorities also suggested that instead of terminating nearly 1 km away from the terminal building, the Metro may terminate somewhere close to the domestic terminal building. “This is to facilitate easy modal shift from the Metro to the airport,” said an official.
The East-West Metro railway corridor may emerge as a tourism destination in itself. It will have four landmark stations and two high-capacity stations of international standards, which will stand apart for their architectural marvel and thematic design.Officials from the department recently met some leading architects of the country for the design of the landmark stations. The stations at Salt Lake stadium, City Centre, Karunamoyee and Sector V will be the new icons of the city. “These four places have some unique features. For example, the Salt Lake Stadium station will have a sports complex at one side and the Swabhumi heritage park and Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals on the other. So, the station will reflect these features,” said chief traffic transportation engineer B K Sadhu.Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation (KMRC) will engage international firms to design and construct its Howrah and Sealdah stations. These two points are very important as a huge volume of passenger traffic will shift from the surface railway to the underground railway network. The depth of the Metro tunnel would equal the height of a 10-storey building. So, it will have escalators at different levels, apart from staircases. A challenging construction for technologists, the corridor will be the first in the country to run below a river. The transport department, the nodal agency for the project, wants to steer clear of certain hurdles before construction work begins. And, land acquisition is a key hurdle. The department has decided to build an eight-storey building on a plot of Calcutta State Transport Corporation, now used as a garbage dump. Traders displaced from land acquired for the project would be rehabilitated in a part of the building while the rest of it might house the KMRC office. The state government will start work on the elevated portion from the Salt Lake-end by October. RITES is close to completing the detailed project report, which estimates the cost to be around Rs 3,349 crore. It wants to engage Delhi Metro Rail Corporation as the probe consultant of their report. Designing and drawing is the next stage. Significantly, construction of the Metro corridor will not disrupt life on the surface though 70% of it would run underground. This is because machines will be used to bore the tunnel without obstruction on the surface. “The part of the tunnel from Howrah Maidan to Eastern Metropolitan Bypass as well as the part that will run underwater, through the Ganga, will be an engineering marvel,” said a senior transport department engineer.