India’s first underwater metro will be launched in Kolkata on March 6, 2024. This historic project will prove to strengthen the country’s infrastructure and make commuting in cities easier.
It will be a historic moment for the country when Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurates India’s first underwater metro in Kolkata on March 6. The metro tunnel is a remarkable feat of engineering and is laid under the Hooghly River for a distance of 16.6 kilometers.
It will have six stations, three of which are underground. The underwater metro will connect the twin cities of Kolkata, Howrah and Salt Lake and the inauguration ceremony is expected to be grand, with the Prime Minister Narender Modi leading the ceremony. Many high-level people and officials will participate in it and the public will experience the underwater metro ride on this day itself.
Here are some key information about Kolkata’s underwater metro station:
- Howrah Metro station is also the deepest station in India. Howrah Maidan-Esplanade section of Kolkata Metro is special because in this section the train will travel under water.
- The Howrah Maidan-Esplanade section goes under the Hooghly river. Howrah and Salt Lake cities are located on the eastern and western banks of this river.
- In a first in India, in April 2023, Kolkata Metro created history by running a train through a tunnel under the Hooghly River as part of trials.
- It is part of the East-West Metro Corridor, which connects Howrah Maidan to IT hub Salt Lake Sector V.This stretch is 4.8 kilometers long and connects Howrah Maidan to Esplanade.
- It is expected that the metro will cover a distance of 520 meters under the Hooghly river in just 45 seconds.
- Part of the east-west alignment between Esplanade and Sealdah is still under construction. However, the stretch from Salt Lake Sector V to Sealdah is already in use. The metro uses a system called Automatic Train Operation (ATO). This means that after the motorman presses a button, the train automatically moves to the next station.
10.8 km is underground, out of the total 16.6 km of the East-West Metro, which also includes the tunnel under the Hooghly River. The rest is above ground. The target is June or July to start commercial operations on the entire east-west route between Salt Lake Sector V and Howrah Maidan.
As India steps into the future of transportation, the world looks forward to the opening of the doors to this unprecedented underwater metro service. The much-awaited inauguration ceremony is scheduled for March 6, 2024 and is expected to be a grand celebration.