10.28 am to 10.31 am, touch of button to launch 3 lines
Times of India | 6 March 2024
KOLKATA: Prime Minister Narendra Modi may not take the symbolic under-river ride when he inaugurates three Metro lines for Kolkata on Wednesday. One of the corridors, the East-West Metro’s truncated 4.8km from Howrah Maidan to Esplanade includes India’s first under-river tunnels.
KMRC, implementing agency of the 16km East-West Metro that now runs 9.2km from Sector V to Sealdah and will eventually link Sector V with Howrah Maidan, had earlier proposed a one-hour programme for the PM.The proposed event included an under-river ride for Modi, depending on the availability of time and considering security aspects. Even while sending the proposal, KMRC had feedback from the railway ministry that the PMO may cut short Modi’s stay at the event to half an hour. Then, there would be no scope for the under-river ride.
“Which is exactly what has happened. The PM will enter Esplanade station at 10.15am and leave at 10.48am,” an official said. At 10.21 am, he will walk to the dais, which will be a part of the huge temporary covering that was still being put together late on Tuesday evening. From 10.28 am to 10.31 am, he is scheduled to open the three lines with the touch of a button.
Among those supervising arrangements was Metro GM P Uday Kumar Reddy, who told TOI: “I feel absolutely humbled and honoured to helm a network of Metro that will boast of one of the country’s greatest engineering feat.”
Union railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw will al0so be present. CM Mamata Banerjee was invited but she has cited pre-scheduled engagements. Two other lines to be launched — New Garia-Airport’s Phase 1 (New Garia to Ruby) and Joka-Esplanade’s Phase II (Majerhat extension beyond Taratala) were conceived by the CM when she was the railway minister in 2009.