Freedom struggle to transport icons, new EW stns to showcase Kolkata’s heritage
Times of India | 29 February 2024
Kolkata: The four stations dotting the new East-West Metro stretch — from How-rah Maidan to Esplanade — have four distinct themes and base colours.
The themes of the four stations — Howrah Maidan, Howrah, Mahakaran and Esplanade — are ‘Sports’, ‘Gateway to Kolkata’, ‘Freedom movement and heritage’ and ‘Heritage transportation’, respectively.
The themes have been conceptualized with regard to their respective location, surrounding and historical significance, explained an official of KMRC, the implementing agency of the 16km East-West Metro, which now runs 9.2km from Sector V to Sealdah.The corridor will eventually link Sector V with Howrah Maidan. KMRC has had to skip the incomplete 2.5km Sealdah-Esplanade section for now and is gearing up to commission the Esplanade-Howrah Maidan section instead.
“During construction of the Mahakaran Metro station, KMRC and Afcons came up with an idea…why not have the Metro stations’ interiors reflect its proximity to Binoy Badal Dinesh Bag, synonymous with Bengal’s freedom movement, and the heritage structures all around?” said Tamal Biswas, project manager of Afcons, which is contracted to build the 3.8km Howrah Maidan-Esplanade stretch, including the 520m-long under-river tunnels. While Afcons has built Mahakaran, Howrah and Howrah Maidan stations, ITD ITD-Cementation has constructed East-West Metro’s Esplanade station.
“Howrah Metro station, embedded inside India’s busiest railway station, is symbolically the ‘gateway to Kolkata’. On the east are the iconic edifices — GPO, Writers’ Buildings, St John’s Church and so on. The Howrah side of the river, on the other hand, is characterized by Ambassador cars, the flower market and narrow, congested streets. All these have been recreated on the murals and artwork inside the Metro station,” said Biswas.
KMRC had taken a parcel of land from Howrah’s Sailen Manna Stadium for construction of the Howrah Maidan Metro station. The theme, therefore, is sports. The base colour? Green. While yellow is the base colour for the Mahakaran station, it is red for Howrah. Blue is the base colour of the Esplanade station. The theme for the new Esplanade Metro is ‘transportation’. “The fast-disappearing yellow taxis have found a permanent place on the walls of Esplanade station. So have the trams,” said an official of ITD ITD-Cementation, contracted to build the Esplanade-Sealdah section.
“It’s not enough to experience a modern, state-of-the-art transportation system unless one knows the past, the history and the heritage of the land,” said Biswas.