East-West Metro makes first successful underground trial run

Kolkata: East West Metro made its first successful underground trial run on Friday from Phoolbagan station up to a little distance ahead of Sealdah station.

The union inspector electrical general had recently granted permission to electrify the third rail beyond Salt Lake Stadium station, following which the KMRCL decided to start the trial run underground. "The entire trial run has been done smoothly. There have been no hiccups in the entire journey," said a senior engineer at KMRCL. The speed was deliberately kept low, it being the first trial run.

Kolkata Metro Railway Corporation Ltd (KMRCL) is implementing the East West (E-W) Metro project from Salt Lake Sector V to Howrah Maidan covering a distance of 16.5 kilometres and the authorities have already finished trial run from Sector V to Salt Lake Stadium. "The E-W Metro is expected to make its commercial run from Sector V to the Salt Lake Stadium by July, with only the nod of the Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS) being awaited. There will be six stations in the route that include Sector V, Karunamoyee, Central Park, City Centre, Bengal Chemical and Salt Lake Stadium," a senior official of KMRCL said. The KMRCL has already received the nod of the Railway Board for commercial services and eight rakes from the Bengaluru based PSU BEML has already been procured for passenger services. The second phase will see commercial run up to Phoolbagan, which is expected to start by October.

It may be mentioned that the path of the E-W Metro will be over ground from Sector V till Subhas Sarovar station and will then go underground. In the entire stretch, around 520 metres of tunneling has been done underneath the river Hooghly.