For residents living along VIP Road in Kolkata, a direct Metro ride has long been a distant dream. While the northern and southern suburbs of Kolkata gradually wove themselves into the city’s rapid transit network, this bustling corridor has remained isolated.

For decades, commuters in the locality had to rely on the Blue Line, making gruelling journeys to the nearest stations — either Shovabazar (8 km) or Dum Dum (3 km) — with no direct public transport to bridge the gap.

While the announcement of the 30-km Orange Line (Kavi Subhash to Airport via New Town) in 2010 sparked immense excitement, the project languished for years with a major bottleneck at the crucial Chingrighata crossing.

Now, that bottleneck is history. Metro sources confirmed that work on VIP Road is set to begin at full speed, paving the way for a seamless transit future.

Clearing hold-ups

Officials said the delay at Chingrighata was largely because of administrative gridlock. To build a 34-metre-long viaduct between metro pillars 318 and 319, engineers needed to launch 12 massive concrete segments. As this required a significant traffic block on the heavily congested EM Bypass, permission from local authorities was repeatedly denied. The project sat completely stalled from February 2, 2025.

Following changes in the administrative landscape, Metro authorities and Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL) said they have secured the long-awaited clearances from the Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate.

Once the decks were cleared, RVNL engineers set a new benchmark. Allocated 120 hours of traffic blocks over two consecutive weeks, the team completed both phases of the Chingrighata work in just 115 hours, finishing ahead of schedule. Officials noted that had the local administration extended the same level of cooperation earlier, the project could have progressed much sooner.

With Chingrighata cleared, the spotlight now shifts to Chinar Park and VIP Road, where a 120-metre-long viaduct must be constructed between pillar numbers 826 and 832 near the Kaikhali Haj House.

Preparations are already underway to transport a massive, 500-tonne launcher machine from Chingrighata to VIP Road, a moving operation that will take nearly a month on its own. According to project engineers, the entire phase will take about four months to complete. The launcher will initially be stationed between pillars 833 and 835 to begin mounting the concrete segments, which weigh between 22 and 34 tonnes each.

To keep the city moving, the Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate has promised full cooperation. The current blueprint involves implementing nightly traffic restrictions on various stretches of VIP Road from 11 pm to 5 am, minimising disruption to daytime commuters.

The new timeline

According to S S Kannan, Chief Public Relations Officer (CPRO), Kolkata Metro, the Orange Line will roll out in phases.

“The entire Orange Line from Kavi Subhash to the Airport, including the VIP Road section, is expected to be fully completed by December 2027,” the senior Kolkata Metro official said.

By December 2026: While services are currently operational up to Beleghata on the Orange Line, the Metro has set an optimistic target to operationalise the stretch from Beleghata to the IT Centre (Sector V) by the end of this year. Crucially, this will allow commuters to interchange at Sector V and travel to Howrah Maidan, effectively linking the Green Line and the Orange Line.

By December 2027: Beyond Sector V, the line will extend to a station just before Chinar Park, enter an underground tunnel section that is currently progressing at a good pace, and terminate at the Airport.

After structural civil engineering wraps up, teams will immediately move to track-laying, electrical formatting, and signalling, bringing a decades-old dream to reality for thousands of daily commuters.