Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday inaugurated and flagged off the Phase I of East West Metro corridor of Kolkata Metro connecting Salt Lake Sector V and Salt Lake Stadium.
Speaking on the occasion, Shri Piyush Goyal said that the entire East-West corridor upto Howrah Maidan will be completed by December 2021.
Presently Metro services are run in Kolkata on only one North South corridor from Noapara to Kavi Subhas stations over a length of 27.3 Km. This corridor was inaugurated 36 years ago in 1984.
Brief: Phase I of East-West Metro
East – West Metro is a 16.5 kms long stretch which connects Howrah on the West bank of River Hooghly with Salt Lake city on the East bank. The project is being executed by Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation Limited (KMRCL). 10.8 kms of the stretch is underground and 5.75 kms will be on elevated viaduct. It is India’s first ever transportation project where trains will ply under the mighty river, Hooghly. This project will be immensely helpful in easing the traffic congestion of Kolkata – a 300 years old city and also in reducing vehicular pollution. Phase-I of East – West Metro which was inaugurated today is a 5.3 kms long stretch having 6 elevated stations.
Features of the Project:
- The first ever transportation tunnel under any river in India.
- Platform Screen Doors to prevent accidents or intentional fall.
- Communication Based Train Control System (CBTC) having enhanced safety features like anti- collision and automatic train control mechanism.
- Passenger friendly features like lifts, escalators, concept of barrier free movement, designated parking for differently-abled, State of the art absorptive type noise barriers provided near hospitals/schools to reduce the train generated noise for comfort of the public.
- Estimated budget for Phase- I is Rs 2431 Cr. out of the total project cost of Rs 8574.98 Cr.
- Emergency Announcement and Fire Detection Mechanism in all coaches.