Kolkata: KMRC MD V K Srivastava, confirming the start of service for all in 10 days at most, added that trains on the route would operate six days a week. There would be no service on Sundays for maintenance. Srivastava said the target deadline for the entire 16km corridor was Oct-end.
The uncertainties and delays notwithstanding, Wednesday was a milestone in Kolkata’s rapid transit network.“For us, after Oct 24, 1984, when the country’s first Metro line came alive, this was a red-letter day,” said retired schoolteacher Debabrata Chowdhury.
PM Narendra Modi, addressing a party rally later, said when he had visited Kolkata for the first time as a youngster, one of the biggest attractions for him was the country’s first Metro. “But now the Metro is also an example of how the BJP stands for quick and time-bound development. Before 2014, in the first 40 years before this government took over, a total of 28km of Metro route was operational (in Kolkata). In the past 10 years with the BJP government at the helm, an additional 31km of new tracks has been added to the Metro route,” Modi said.
At Esplanade station, Metro GM P Uday Kumar Reddy made a video presentation of the 520m section that has been constructed 13m below the Hooghly riverbed and 40m from the surface level.
“It is a very special day for the people of Kolkata as the city’s Metro system is undergoing significant expansion. This will speed up the communication system and reduce traffic congestion. It is a proud moment that the country’s first underwater Metro transport tunnel under a major river of our country has been inaugurated on the Howrah Maidan-Esplanade Metro Branch,” said the PM in a post on X.