Green Line: Shortest new stretch bridges east & west
Times of India | 23 August 2025
Kolkata: The East-West Metro, projected to exceed the age-old Blue Line in ridership within a year or two, completed its first full run between Salt Lake Sector V and Howrah Maidan across the Hooghly on Friday evening. The metro connection, which was in the works for 16 years, also linked two of India's busiest railway stations — Howrah and Sealdah.
The project, conceived in 2008, came to fruition after overcoming two significant hurdles, both at Bowbazar. The first occurred before the start of construction, and the second when it was nearing completion.
On Friday, a metro rake carrying passengers finally travelled from Sealdah to Esplanade, linking the two disjointed services at either end. The 9.2 km Sector V-Sealdah section was opened in three phases from Feb 2020, and the 4.8 km Esplanade-Howrah Maidan section was commissioned in March 2024. | Gold Rates Today in Kolkata | Silver Rates Today in KolkataThe inaugural train covered the 2.6 km link between Sealdah and Esplanade in four and a half minutes, marking the longest uninterrupted metro ride in the city. This surpassed the 2-km under-the-river ride between Mahakaran and Howrah Station, which takes around 3 minutes. With the last leg commissioned, commuters can travel 16.6 km from Sector V to Howrah Maidan in 32 minutes.
All key Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation officials linked to the project cheered like children when the inaugural train started from Sealdah towards Esplanade. Their enthusiasm was understandable, as they spent sleepless nights since a cave-in at Bowbazar's Durga Pituri Lane stalled the project on Aug 31, 2019.
Engineers said the train was passing through a 30 ft section of the tunnels where reinforced steel rings were installed to ensure that the tunnel rings, which deformed, could be brought back to shape and tracks could be laid on them.
On Friday, it took four and a half minutes to cover the 2.6 km stretch during the inaugural run, seconds after the PM waved the green flag at 4.45 pm.
Officials said the Sector V-Sealdah section has been registering around 60,000 daily footfalls, and the Esplanade-Howrah Maidan segment around 50,000 every day. They expect the figure to reach 2 lakh by Durga Puja and then increase to around 3 lakh when the frequency will need to be augmented.
The train departed from Sealdah at 4.47 pm, entered Bowbazar's cave-in zone at 4.49 pm, and passed below Nirmal Chunder Street at 4.50 pm. Half a minute later, it reached below Wellington, started the long right turn, and reached SN Banerjee Road at 4.51 pm. At 4.52 pm, the train reached Esplanade.
"Post Aug 31, 2019 (when the tunnel borer digging the west-bound tunnel hit an aquifer causing large-scale subsidence and displacing more than 700 Bowbazar residents), everyone thought the project was going to be abandoned. We are so glad to finally see light at the end of the tunnel," said Pinaki Mukherjee, project manager, ITD ITD-Cementation, contractors of the 2.6-km Esplanade-Sealdah section.
Around 16 years ago, the project had hit its first hurdle, also at Bowbazar, when shop owners near Blue Line Central Station refused to shift and make way for the interface with Green Line. Ultimately, Central station had to be abandoned and the project took a detour via Esplanade before reaching Sealdah.