Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the country’s first ever underwater metro in Kolkata on Wednesday. This metro will pass through a tunnel built in the Hooghly River. Through this metro, Howrah and Kolkata, two big cities located on both sides of the river, have been connected.
The country’s first underwater metro has started in West Bengal. Metro train passing under the Hooghly River, the identity of West Bengal. The 260-kilometer-long Hooghly is a part of the Ganga River. Kolkata Metro will now run under this river. The country’s first underwater train is going to pass under the river here. It is being seen as an engineering miracle.
London, Paris, and underwater metro are those words that Indians used to be surprised to hear. But now the time has come not to be surprised but to surprise the world. The route of the train that ran between London and Paris used to pass underwater and now for the first time in India’s Kolkata city, the metro is going to run under the Hooghly River. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has inaugurated the Kolkata Underwater Metro on Thursday (6 March).
A boost for Kolkata’s infrastructure!
Here are highlights from the interaction earlier today during the metro journey. pic.twitter.com/OU6FahtN3w
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) March 6, 2024
This will be the first time that a metro will run under the river. There is a 4.8-kilometer route between Howrah and Esplanade station. Out of this, about half a kilometer i.e. 520 meters passes through water. It takes less than a minute to pass through the half-kilometer-long tunnel. Currently, the East-West Metro corridor extends for 16.6 km, of which 10.8 km lies underground, including the Hooghly River Tunnel.
Majerhat Metro Station is a unique elevated metro station, which will also include a canal. Apart from being the deepest metro station in India, Howrah’s East-West Metro station is going to be the largest station in India. The speed of the metro in the underwater tunnel will be 80 kilometers per hour. Despite being under water, the tunnel has been prepared in such a way that not even a single drop of water will be able to enter inside the tunnel.
All about India’s First ever underwater Metro in Kolkata
Howrah Bridge is under the Hooghly River. Two tunnels have been built just below this bridge and these tunnels have been named East West Metro. It is also important to understand how big a challenge it was to build a 520-meter-long tunnel inside the river. There is Howrah Railway Station here, which is one of the busiest stations. Hooghly River flows in front of Howrah Railway Station and the tunnel built for Howrah Metro. A part of it passes under the ground of Howrah station.
The challenge was how to start the tunnel construction work from under the nearly hundred years old railway station. After Howrah Maidan, there were many buildings on the metro route which were as old as 100 years. The biggest difficulty was taking samples.
However, overcoming every challenge, the 500-meter-long tunnel under the river was completed without damaging any building. Then Howrah Metro Station was prepared by digging the deepest place in the country i.e. 30 meters below the ground. For the Howrah Metro Station, built just behind the Howrah Railway Station, 33 meters of land was excavated, which the deepest excavation is done for any metro project in the country.
Understand how deep the excavation went from the fact that the tunnel was built about 100 feet below the Hooghly River. The tunnel was built at approximately the same depth as a ten-storey. building. To make way for the metro station, excavation has been done under the river, so water will flow easily from above.
Understand how big a challenge it was for the engineers of the country to dig an underwater tunnel from the fact that the danger of water was looming at any time. Therefore, the boring machine that was ordered for digging the tunnel was designed in such a way that if any kind of emergency situation occurs inside the river, the machine would save lives like a submarine.
Four underground stations were built
Actually, the earlier picture was such that due to the river in between, the metro used to come only from Sealdah to Esplanade. But now with the completion of the tunnel under the river, four underground metro stations have been built. The amazing thing is that the passengers who used to take an hour to reach Howrah station every day will reach the platform directly in just a few minutes. Kolkata is a city burdened with dense population where even the roads begin to breathe. It takes one hour to 45 minutes to cover the distance by road between Howrah and Sealdah but this will not happen now.