Metro eyes E-W Howrah Maidan-Salt Lake run by Dec, may seek CRS check in Oct
Times of India | 10 July 2024
Kolkata: With work progressing steadily on the critical Esplanade-Sealdah stretch, KMRC intends to apply for CRS inspections in Oct and launch East-West Metro’s full run in Dec this year.
The Commission of Railway Safety (CRS) is the apex safety regulator that approves a new Metro line. East-West Metro, which has suffered major subsidence issues in the Esplanade-Sealdah section, now runs two disjointed parts — 9.4 km between Sector V and Sealdah, and 4.8 km between Howrah Maidan and Esplanade.Implementing agency Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation (KMRC) is desperately trying to link the two stretches — from Esplanade to Sealdah — so that the entire 16 km East-West Metro corridor can be operational by this fiscal.
Earlier this year, ITD ITD-Cementation, contracted to build the 2.5 km Esplanade-Sealdah section, submitted a report saying the complex work in the unpredictable soil conditions in Bowbazar would be extremely slow as a precaution against further cave-in disasters. Therefore, the section cannot be completed until early 2025. In March, while launching the Howrah Maidan-Esplanade section, KMRC and Metro Railway, which runs the city’s metro lines, announced that operations in the incomplete section, which would effectively mean the complete run for the entire 16 km East-West Metro, would start this Oct.
Now, ITD and KMRC seem to be on the same page, considering the most recent milestone achieved in the cave-in zone. On June 14, retrofitting of the steel liners in the damaged parts of the west-bound tunnel started.
In all, 44 tunnel segments — which form the tunnel rings — of the west-bound tunnel and 28 segments of the east-bound one had suffered 50 mm-60 mm ovalization when the tunnel boring machine (TBM) digging the west-bound tunnel hit an aquifer in Aug 2019. The accident caused houses to collapse in Bowbazar and tracks couldn’t be laid in these parts. Most of the damaged tunnel parts have been restored.
“Perhaps the only other country which has rectified damaged underground metro tunnels this way is Singapore, which faced a similar tunnelling incident like we did in Bowbazar,” an engineer said. In fact, the agencies have been lauded by international experts, including Hoss Bineshian, an Australian tunnelling and international veteran, for this particular accomplishment. The experts said this is unique in global tunnelling history.
Work to fill the gap between the superior Salma 350 steel and the original segment with high-strength non-shrinkable mortar is almost over; 50% of the egress shaft construction at Bowbazar’s Durga Pituri Lane is done. Following this, cable and power supply and signalling work will start.
“We are trying to get CRS to inspect the Esplanade-Sealdah stretch in Oct. Hope to start commercial operations in the section in Dec,” a senior KMRC official told TOI.