Union minister Smriti Irani on Monday inaugurated the Sealdah metro station of the East-West corridor, which will help people living in Kolkata's suburbs to reach IT hub of Sector 5 without hassle. Irani inaugurated the station virtually from Howrah Maidan, the terminal station of the 16.6-km corridor on the other side of river Hooghly.
Trains were so far running between Sector 5 and Phoolbagan. Commercial services till Sealdah will begin on Thursday, taking the total operational length of the corridor to 9 km. Irani said the 2.33-km extension up to Sealdah will help around 35,000 passengers in their daily commute.
Local TMC MP Sudip Bandopadhyay and MLA Paresh Pal boycotted the programme, alleging that Indian Railways "insulted" Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee by inviting her at the "last minute" for the inauguration of the station, located in central Kolkata. The metro station will link suburban train services at Sealdah, one of the busiest terminal railway stations in the country, providing connectivity to the passengers travelling to Salt Lake and the IT hub of Sector 5.
The metro authorities are pinning hopes that the extension of services up to Sealdah will significantly increase the number of passengers in the partially operational East-West metro corridor, which is suffering from low patronage. When fully operational, the line will connect Howrah to Salt Lake via Kolkata. A part of the line has been built under the river bed of Hooghly, making it the first underwater metro system in the country.
The foundation stone for the corridor was laid in February 2009 by then chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee in presence of then Union minister Pranab Mukherjee. Kolkata boasts of the country's first metro rail system — the North-South Line, which at present operates from Dumdum to Kavi Subhas. Besides, works are underway for several other corridors, which were announced when Mamata Banerjee was the railway minister.
Metro Railway Kolkata is a part of the Indian Railways unlike the transit systems in other cities of the country where the state governments have stakes. Several houses developed cracks during the underground work for the East-West Metro line at Bowbazar in central Kolkata in May, nearly three years after a similar incident there.
On August 31, 2019, a tunnel boring machine hit an aquifer leading to severe ground subsidence and the collapse of several buildings at Bowbazar. The two incidents dealt major blows to the project, which has missed several deadlines of completion.
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