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Bengal

Date of inauguration of 1st phase of East-West Metro yet to be decided

Kolkata: The date of inauguration of the first phase of East-West Metro is yet to be finalised as the final trial runs are still continuing.

"The final date of inauguration has not been decided yet. Let the trials be over then we will finalise the East-West Metro first phase inauguration date," said Kolkata Metro Railway Chief Public Relations Officer Indrani Banerjee.

While the first round of trials for Phase-I of the East-West Metro were held from October 15 to October 17, the second round started on Wednesday and continued from 3 pm to 7 pm on Thursday.

"After conducting the trial runs, the officials will return to their respective offices and review the activities during the trial runs. May be tomorrow (Friday), we will get the report of the trial run," pointed out Banerjee.

The first phase of the East-West Metro stretch is five kilometres between Salt Lake Sector V and Salt Lake Stadium. It includes Salt Lake Sector V station, Karunamoyee, Central Park, City Centre, Bengal Chemical and Salt Lake Stadium stations. During the trial run on Thursday, the Kolkata Metro Railway officials checked the synchronisation of platform screen doors with the train and other technicalities.

Once the report is submitted, the Kolkata Metro Railway will send it to the Railway Board, the apex body of the Indian Railways. The final date of inauguration will be decided by the latter.

While the Kolkata Metro Railway Corporation Limited (KMRCL) is implementing the East-West Metro project from Salt Lake Sector V to Howrah Maidan, covering a distance of 16.5 kilometres, five rakes are being prepared for the commercial run.

The second phase will see commercial run up to Phoolbagan, which is expected to start by the end of this year. It may be mentioned that the path of the East-West Metro will be over the ground from Salt Lake Sector V till Subhas Sarobar Station and then will go underground. In the entire stretch, around 520 metres of tunneling has been done underneath river Hooghly. The tunnel boring work stopped as the buildings in Bowbazar area developed structural damages following subsidence on August 31.

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