Being the first city in the nation where the Metro services were launched in 1984, Kolkata made history. 39 years later, the City of Joy made history once more as the Kolkata Metro made its first-ever underwater trip from Mahakaran to Howrah through a tunnel beneath the Hooghly River.
P Uday Kumar Reddy, general manager of Metro Rail, and other senior representatives of Metro Rail and the Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation Limited rode rake no. 613, which crossed the Hooghly River at approximately 11:55 a.m. on Wednesday, from Mahakaran to Howrah Maidan station. Once the rake arrived at Howrah station successfully, Uday Kumar performed a pooja.
The general manager of the Metro Rail described it as a historic occasion and announced that testing runs on the 4.8 km segment from Howrah Maidan to Esplanade will be done for seven months before the Metro service on this route is made available to the general public.
Uday Kumar expressed his gratitude to all of the employees and engineers of KMRCL, whose labours and direction made it possible to complete this engineering masterpiece.
“This is a historic moment for Metro Railway as after overcoming many obstacles, we have succeeded in running rakes beneath the Hooghly river,” stated Kausik Mitra, CPRO of Metro Rail. This is a ground-breaking move towards giving the residents of Kolkata and its suburbs access to a modern transportation infrastructure. This is undoubtedly a unique new year’s present from Indian Railways to the Bengali people.
On this route, commercial services should start this year. Howrah will be the country’s deepest Metro station (33 metres below surface) once this section is made accessible to the general public. The 520-meter segment under the Hooghly River is scheduled to be covered by the Metro in 45 seconds.
Following the trial run, regular Metro service will be made available to the general public from Howrah Maidan station to Saltlake Sector V. As a result, traffic will be less congested and people will have no trouble using the Metro service to get where they need to go.
