Purple Line milestone: RVNL casts roof slab on Victoria stn
Times of India | 4 December 2025
Kolkata: The Purple Line has reached a milestone, with RVNL completing the roof slab casting of Victoria metro station. Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd, implementing the 14km Joka-Esplanade or the Purple Line, on Monday completed casting the roof slab of the corridor's underground Victoria metro station. This is a top-down construction of the three-storey underground structure where the concrete roof is built first, then the concourse or the ticketing area, and finally the bottom slab. Casting of the 325m by 23m roof slab began in April this year, with all precautions in place to protect the nearby Victoria Memorial.
"Instrumentation and real-time monitoring were done all along to ensure there wasn't the slightest ground subsidence which could have led to any adverse effect on Victoria Memorial Hall (VMH)," a Railways engineer said. Casting of the station's diaphragm wall or D-wall (which separates the construction area from the soil and forms the station box) began in May 2024, which required an excavation of around 20m below the surface.
The roof slab has been cast atop the station box or D-wall. "The roof slab for the Victoria station has been completed, marking a significant step for the Purple Line. RVNL managed to complete the work in seven months despite the heavy rainfall between July and Sept," the engineer added.
The Purple Line now operates 8km from Joka to Majerhat. L&T has been contracted to build the 5km Kidderpore-Esplanade section, which will be dotted by four stations: Kidderpore, Victoria, Park Street, and Esplanade. Work for the concourse level has already begun. The concourse level casting is expected to be over in March 2026, sources said.
Meanwhile, in Feb 2026, work for casting the base slab will begin. The base slab casting should be over in five months from the time work starts. Metro officials said Victoria metro station will be ready for operations in 2027. From May last year, a total of 900m of D-wall was built in eight months. This was followed by another round of excavation for the entire station's covered area. Then came the slab casting phase.
The station's platform level will be at a depth of 14.7m from the surface. The 325m by 23m Victoria metro station, coming up opposite VMH's north gate off Queensway, has been a contentious issue for the Purple Line. In May 2022, VMH authorities gave the final go-ahead for the station near VMH after the state's approval in Feb 2022.