KOLKATA (Metro Rail News): A 2-day visit of the Chief Commissioner of Railway Safety (CCRS) has been scheduled for today to inspect the East-West metro Corridor.
Inspection
CRRS will be conducting the inspections in the following manner
- Firstly, the 9.2 Km Sector V-Sealdah section.
- Secondly, the 4.8km Esplanade-Howrah Maidan section.
- Thirdly, the under-construction 2.5km Sealdah-Esplanade stretch.
ATO
As per the official Communications, the CRRS inspection is being held to check the fitness of the stretches for the Automatic Train Operations without any staff on board.
The Bowbazar Complication
The Bowbazar section of the East-West Metro Corridor, spanning 800 meters, has experienced three incidents of water seepage and subsidence since 2019. These issues occurred in one of the eight cross packages, each spaced 250 meters apart, between Esplanade and Sealdah, leading to subsidence in October 2022.
Initially, each cross package aimed to connect two tunnels, facilitating effective handling of emergency or contingency situations. However, following the subsidence incident, the number of cross-packages was reduced to five, now 360 meters apart.
Other Complications
Facing challenges, the Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation (KMRC), overseeing the 16km corridor between Sector V and Howrah Maidan, has decided to limit operations to a truncated route from Esplanade to Howrah Maidan by the end of this year. This decision excludes further extension beyond Sealdah.
Due to the lack of a depot on the Howrah side, empty train sets would travel from the Salt Lake depot to the operational Sealdah Station. From there, these sets would be conveyed through the eastbound tunnel of the Sealdah-Esplanade Stretch, currently under construction, to reach the Esplanade Station.
Focus on the East-West Metro Corridor
The East-West Metro, also called Kolkata Metro Line 2 or the Green Line, currently operates between Salt Lake and Sealdah. The expansion project aims to connect Salt Lake to Howrah, passing beneath the Hooghly River, with an eastern extension to Teghoria. The extended line will cover 22 km, featuring 17 stations from Teghoria (Haldiram) east to Howrah Maidan in the west. Notably, 11 stations will be elevated, and six will be underground.
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It’s , most unfortunate that despite pre-scheduled to start of the service in December 2023 – the project is still lagged behind the date line. Still it would be better to announce the rescheduled time frame to avoid any mis – interpretation in this regard.