123 Kolkata: The first East-West Metro train rolled through the disaster-hit westbound tunnel from Sealdah to Esplanade via the Bowbazar cave-in zone on Tuesday. With Metro Railway GM P Uday Kumar Reddy, who is also chairman of Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation, the implementing agency of the 16.6 km East-West Metro, the train started at 11.20 am from Sealdah. East-West Metro now runs in two disjointed sections – 9.2 km Sector V-Sealdah and 4.8 km Esplanade-Howrah Maidan. The 2.6 km Sealdah-Esplanade section is veering towards completion.
"The first trial run on the Sealdah–Esplanade stretch (2.6 km) through the westbound tunnel of the Green line (as the East-West corridor is known) was conducted successfully today," Metro Railway said in a statement.. "The GM was in the motorman's cab throughout the trial. The run started at 11.20 am from Sealdah metro station. The rake (MR 607) reached Esplanade metro station at 11.31 am. Senior officials from Metro Railway and KMRC were present," a metro spokesperson said.
The GM later held a meeting with the officials at Esplanade metro station. "It was indeed a historic moment for all those involved in converting this dream into a reality," said an engineer, recalling houses falling like a pack of cards on the fateful evening of Aug 31, 2019. The tunnel boring machine (TBM) digging the westbound tunnel ran into an aquifer below Bowbazar's Durga Pituri Lane, triggering large-scale subsidence for which more than 700 residents were evacuated.
The subsidence was followed by at least two more cave-ins that led to building damages and pushed the Rs 10,000 crore East-West Metro project by at least six years. Metro Railway aims to launch the entire 16.6 km and link Sector V with Howrah Maidan by mid-2025. In Dec, track laying in the Bowbazar section was completed after connecting the last few metres of the westbound tunnel below Bowbazar's Durga Pituri Lane. The stretch between Esplanade and Sealdah stations, or more specifically, a 200 m patch in Bowbazar, has seen multiple incidents of water seepage and soil subsidence. On Dec 24, the Metro GM and other officials from KMRC and contractors ITD ITD-Cementation conducted a trolley run through the westbound (Howrah-bound) tunnel.
The eastbound tunnel has been more complete than the westbound tunnel, and trains were transported from the Salt Lake depot through it along the incomplete Esplanade-Sealdah section to the under-river Esplanade-Howrah Maidan section. Now trains have started rolling through the westbound tunnel for the first time. KMRC has planned train tests from 11 pm to 5 am in the next few days. "The tests will not affect operations. They will be simultaneously conducted on both the east and westbound lines to reduce testing time," an official said, adding, "A BEML-make rake will move between Phoolbagan and Esplanade for ‘overlapping testing' of the functional sections with the non-functional ones."