Kolkata: On Friday, a Metro train will enter a new underground station in Kolakta for the first time in 24 years. The trial run for the East-West Metro, which has been on the overhead section between Sector V and Salt Lake Stadium stations till now, will be extended to the underground section on Friday with the train entering Phoolbagan station. The last time a train had entered a
new underground station was in 1994 on MG Road.
“Given the historic significance, Friday’s trial run will be special,” said Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation (KMRC) general manager A K Nandy. KMRC is the implementing agency for the 16km East-West Metro corridor from Sector V to Howrah Maidan through the Hooghly riverbed. While services between Sector V and Salt Lake Stadium is expected to start at June-end or early July, services to Phoolbagan could be introduced around October.
The trial run’s extension to Phoolbagan got a shot in the arm on Tuesday when the Union electrical inspector general granted permission to electrify the third rail beyond Salt Lake Stadium station. Work to electrify the third rail began on Wednesday and took two days to link it up to Sealdah East.
KMRC considers this an achievement because the possibility of extending East-West Metro’s commercial run to Phoolbagan ran into a hurdle as Schneider Electric, the company providing the key equipment for power connection along the tracks between Salt Lake Stadium and Phoolbagan stations, was planning to ship the cargo from China. It would have taken 45 days for the equipment to reach Kolkata, which would have pushed back the Phoolbagan extension to December.
Source: The Times of India
