E-W Metro holds test run under Ganges

Kolkata: The East-West Metro on Thursday conducted a successful test run of its rake through a tunnel under the River Ganga as it covered a distance of about 4.8 kilometres from Howrah Maidan to Esplanade and back.

However, the rake crossed the tunnel underneath the river which is 520 metres in length and located 32 metres below the water surface level in 46 seconds which is the time that a rake is expected to take when it begins a full-fledged commercial run with the speed being 70 km an hour. The tunnel is between the Howrah Station and Mahakaran.

“We have conducted a test run today (Thursday). The next phase will be a trial run. In the meantime, we will be readying papers for CRS (Commissioner of Railway Safety) inspection and doing other work for the stations along this stretch. We are taking all possible measures so that commercial run can be started at an earliest,” A K Nandy, general manager, administration, Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation (KMRC) which is executing the East-West Metro corridor said.

The four stations in the stretch test run are — Howrah Maidan, Howrah Station, Mahakaran and Esplanade. There is a plan to have facilities for announcements within the compartments while the rake will be approaching the tunnel under the river from both sides. The test runs and the trial run involves various steps like examining the speed, the signalling system, the emergency brakes, the horizontal lurching at the bends etc.

The EW Metro scripted history on April 12 when its rake ran through the tunnel under the Hooghly for the first time from the Eastern Metropolis to Howrah on the other side of the river.