Expect East-West full run by next puja, say Metro engineers

Kolkata: Even as Metro Railway GM P Uday Kumar Reddy couldn’t spell out the timeline for East-West Metro’s full run, engineers involved in the construction of the 2.5km Esplanade-Sealdah section hinted that trains may start running along the entire stretch around the pujas next year.
Officials and engineers suggested that civil work of the troublesome 2.5km should be over by the fiscal’s end.This will be followed by at least three months of signal and safety trials and the section should be launched around the pujas. “We have surpassed most hurdles but there are some time-consuming jobs. Currently, tunnel rings that were impacted by the 2019 subsidence are being retrofitted with steel liners. Peripheral grouting is also on,” an engineer said.

Talking to reporters on Friday, the Metro GM Reddy had said: “I cannot commit to any deadline for the Esplanade-Sealdah section (the last 2.5km leg of the 16km corridor). Construction in that area (the 200m subsidence-ridden area around Bowbazar) is very critical. We really don’t know what will happen. We are trying our level best to safely move inch by inch. So, it is taking time.”
In March this year, when East-West Metro’s under-river section (from Howrah Maidan to Esplanade) was being launched by PM Narendra Modi, authorities of Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation (KMRC), implementing agency of the 16km East-West Metro project, and Metro Railway, which operates the Kolkata Metro network, had announced that the critical section would be over by Oct 2024 and East-West Metro would finally run its full 16km course. But the project suffered yet another setback because of water seepage on Sept 5 at Bowbazar’s Durga Pituri Lane where a passenger evacuation shaft is being built. Contractors ITD-ITD Cementation had to shift 52 residents while work resumed after a fortnight.
Engineers said the eastbound tunnel, through which rakes are transported from the Salt Lake depot to the Howrah section, is almost ready. Around 200m of track laying for the westbound tunnel is left. Fire hydrants are being installed. But the biggest challenge is building the eight storey-deep egress shaft at Durga Pituri Lane. “This is a slow and careful job. Unless the shaft is ready, the section won’t get the nod from the Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS),” an official said.
Because of the troubled 2.5km Esplanade-Sealdah section, East-West Metro now runs in two disjointed sections — 9.2km Sector V-Sealdah and 4.8km Howrah Maidan-Esplanade. The stretch between Esplanade and Sealdah has been under-construction for the last six years. It had experienced a major tunnelling disaster on Aug 31, 2019, which rendered around 750 residents homeless. This was followed by two more cave-ins in May and Oct 2022.