Commercial services of East-West Metro (Green Line) to remain suspended on March 8, 9
Telegraph | 7 March 2025
Commercial services of East-West Metro (Green Line) will be suspended on March 8 and 9 (Saturday and Sunday) to expedite the trial of the signalling system, the carrier said on Tuesday.
The services will close earlier than usual on Friday night and begin later than usual on Monday morning, said an official.
Commercial services are not run on Green Line 1 on Sundays.
The 16.6km corridor is now functional between Salt Lake Sector V and Sealdah (Green Line 1) and between Howrah Maidan and Esplanade (Green Line 2).
“Metro Railway, Kolkata is going to grant another complete traffic block on March 8 and 9 for testing of the communication-based train control (CBTC) system on the entire East-West Metro Corridor (Green Line). No services will be available during that period,” said an official.
“Services will be partially affected on March 7 evening and March 10 morning,” the official said.
On Friday, the last Metro will leave Sealdah at 7.03pm, instead of the usual 9.35pm. The last Metro will leave Sector V at 7.05pm, instead of 9.40pm.
On Green Line-2, the last train will leave Esplanade and Howrah Maidan stations at 7pm, instead of 9.45pm.
On Monday, the first Metro will leave Sector V at 8.05am, an hour later than usual. The first train will leave Sealdah at 8.15am, instead of 6.55am. On Green Line-2, the first trains will leave Esplanade and Howrah Maidan at 8am, instead of 7am.
East-West Metro was shut for passengers from February 13 to 16 and again from February 20 to 23. Before that, commercial services were suspended on January 12 and 19, both Sundays, for the trial.
Till now, the communication-based train control (CBTC) system — an advanced anti-collision system — was functional separately, as two units, in the two operational phases of the corridor.
A 2.6km stretch between Esplanade and Sealdah, which has seen four incidents of water leakage and soil subsidence since 2019, delaying the project for years, is the only under-construction part of the corridor. The civil construction of the stretch was completed in December.
Now, trials are underway to bring the entire Howrah Maidan-Sector V corridor under one unified CBTC system, said engineers.
The services will be affected on Friday and Monday because it takes over eight hours to make the stations ready for the trial and again the same time to restore it, said a Metro engineer.
The engineer said the first step of the tests involved “off-loading the old software and uploading a new one for a unified corridor”. It meant upgrading the new system at 12 stations along the corridor and at the control centres in Sector V and Howrah Maidan.
The last period of suspension of tests saw trains running mainly between Sealdah and Esplanade and occasionally on the full stretch.
“Two trains are being used for the trials,” said an official.
The East-West Metro has a fleet of 14 six-coach BEML rakes.