East-West Metro misses Puja deadline, will take 4-5 months more to commence

Kolkata: It's official. Kolkatans will have to wait for at least four to five months more to witness the commencement of the East-West (EW) Metro. A senior official of the Kolkata Metro Railway Corporation Limited (KMRCL), the implementing agency, said it will be the last quarter of the current fiscal when the E-W Metro will start its services making it clear that it will miss the deadline of its expected commencement before the Durga Puja this year. The authorities had earlier announced that service from Salt Lake Sector V to Salt Lake stadium will start from October 2.

"In October, we will start the actual trial speed run of the rakes. We will gradually achieve the speed of 80 to 90 kilometre per hour. So it will be the last quarter of the fiscal when we can start passenger services. It will be February end or early March 2019 for the beginning of services," the senior KMRCL official said. It may be mentioned that Union Railway minister Piyush Goyal who visited the city to take stock of the various ongoing Metro projects in the city in July had expressed his doubts of commencement of services in October as the trial run was held for the first time only on July 4. "It takes around five to six months of trial run for starting full-fledged services. The run has started on July 4. So it is unlikely that the October 2 deadline can be met," a senior KMRCL official had said after the run.

The digging of the tunnel from Dharmatala to Sealdah stumbled upon an impediment with five steel pillars being found underground near Dharmatala.

These pillars were erected at the time of construction work for North-South Metro that connects Noapara with Kavi Subhas. The tracks for the E-W Metro will run under the tracks of the existing North-South Metro.

"It is not possible for the Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) to cut the tunnel through these pillars. We have to create a small tunnel first and remove these pillars. The process will take at least three to four months' time. Then, only the TBM machine can be used to make the tunnel," a KMRCL engineer said. There are also a number of old and dangerous buildings near the alignment of the E-W Metro which is also an area of concern for the engineers involved in the execution of the project. "We are trying hard to start services from Salt Lake Sector V to Sealdah by 2021," the engineer added.