East West Metro in Kolkata holds successful trial run

Kolkata: The first trial run in a section of the city's East West Metro route has passed off without any glitch, an official said here on Thursday.

With the successful trial run, commercial service in the 3 km stretch between Salt Lake Sector V to the Stadium is likely to commence soon.

The East West Metro route is 16.6-km long from Sector V in Salt Lake city to Howrah Maidan across the river Hooghly.

"The first of the five rakes to be used for commercial service in the first phase went through a glitch-free trial run on the stretch yesterday," East West Metro director (rolling stock) Anup Kumar Kundu said on Thursday. Rake, tracks, third rail connection and several other components were checked during the first run and were found to be flawless, he said.

"This is one of the fastest trial run among metro lines in the country, with only 2.5 months having been taken from receiving a rake to putting it on trial run," Kundu said.

While the Metro authorities have received two state- of-the-art coaches from the manufacturer, one more is expected to reach here within a few days, he said. "The other two rakes are likely to reach within a month or two," he said.

Metro Railway General Manager Ajay Vijayvargiya had earlier said passenger services from Sector V to Salt Lake Stadium, which is part of Phase I of East West Metro, are likely to be introduced by Durga Puja in October this year. Construction work from the Stadium to Phoolbagan will be complete by March 2019, after which this part will be handed over to the Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS) for trials, he said. Vijayvargiya had said work was progressing very well and the entire project is likely to be completed within two years.

The East West Metro project of Kolkata Metro Railway Corporation Ltd (KMRCL) has been witness to prolonged delays for various reasons from clearances to land acquisition issues. Completion of construction of tunnels under river Hooghly in June 2017 was a major milestone for the project, which will have a 10.8-km underground corridor while the rest would be elevated section.

The first phase of the Kolkata Metro in the North-South route was commenced commercially on October 24, 1984.

The route now covers 27.23 km from Noapara in the north to Kavi Subhash station in the southern part of the city.