NEW DELHI: Metro train running underground or on a bridge is a common sight. But on April 12, Kolkata Metro became the first metro rail in the country to make an under-river journey as its rakes passed through an underwater tunnel below the Hooghly river.
This is the first time that any metro in the country has passed through a tunnel built in a river. The tunnel built under the Hooghly river is 13 meters below the river bed and 33 meters below ground level. It takes about 45 seconds to cross the tunnel.
Metro Railway General Manager P Udaya Kumar Reddy, who travelled from Mahakaran to Howrah Maidan station in rake number MR-612, which crossed the Hooghly river, described it as a historic event. He also said that for the next seven months, trial runs on the 4.8-km underground section from Howrah Maidan to Esplanade will be carried out. After this, the stretch will be started for the people. Once this stretch opens, Howrah will become the country’s deepest Metro station (33 metres below the surface). Commercial services on this stretch are expected to start later this year.
There are four stations on this metro route, which include Esplanade, Mahakaran, Howrah and Howrah Maidan. The tunnel covers Salt Lake Sector V in the east and runs till Howrah Maidan in the west along the river bank.
Significantly, the country’s first metro was also started in Kolkata itself in the year 1984. India’s first underwater (subaqueous tunnel) rail system connects the Howrah station complex on the western bank of the Hooghly river to Armenian Ghat on the eastern bank.
