India’s first underwater metro section in Kolkata going to open today
Nestled under the Hooghly river, which separates the twin cities of Kolkata and Howrah, this feat stands as a testament to engineering ingenuity
India’s first underwater metro section in Kolkata going to open today
Kolkata: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the Howrah Maidan-Esplanade section of Kolkata Metro’s East-West corridor on Wednesday, heralding India’s first venture into underwater metro services, which is deemed as an engineering marvel.
The Howrah Maidan-Esplanade section, a groundbreaking addition to the metropolis’ transportation network and touted to be the first transportation tunnel “under any mighty river in India”, will have the deepest metro station in the country — the Howrah Metro station.
Nestled under the Hooghly river, which separates the twin cities of Kolkata and Howrah, this feat stands as a testament to engineering ingenuity. Kolkata Metro touched a milestone in April 2023 as its rakes completed a trial journey under the bed of Hooghly through a tunnel 32 metre below the water level for the first time in India.
According to researchers, the idea of having an underwater transportation system on the lines of London was first mooted by the British in 1921. “But the idea did not see the light of the day as soil tests did not yield positive results. They were forced to abandon the idea and the project plan was shelved,” Aloke Kumar, Associate Professor of IIM-Calcutta, told media.
Kumar, who had conducted extensive research on railways, said the idea was again pushed in the 1980s by then Railway Minister ABA Ghani Khan Chowdhury. “But the project never saw the light of the day. It was in 2008 after being sanctioned by the UPA government that the construction work began in 2009,” a former railway official said.
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