KOLKATA: For the first time since the launch of the East-West Metro in March 2020, services on both sections will be suspended along the corridor for two consecutive days — on December 14 and 15 — to allow the passage of eight empty rakes to and from the Salt Lake warehouse. It is also the first time that so many rakes will be transported through the incomplete Esplanade-Sealdah section.
The Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation (KMRC), which is implementing the 16-km East-West Metro Corridor or Green Line, plans to take back the four rakes that were brought to the under-river section from the Salt Lake depot on November 10 back for maintenance. The rakes will be exchanged for four others.
State-of-the-art BEML rakes plying on the East-West Metro Corridor require regular (at least weekly) maintenance. However, no such facility is available on the Howrah side. The rakes are therefore being slowly maneuvered through the somewhat complete east-facing tunnel of the unfinished Esplanade-Sealdah section. From Sealdah, they are normally driven to the car and maintenance depot in Central Park. Because of the heavy load, only two rakes were used Howrah Maidan-Esplanade Section since it was released on March 15 this year.
The East-West Metro runs in two disjoint sections – 4.8 km Howrah Maidan-Esplanade and 9.2 km Sector V-Sealdah. The 2.5 km Esplanade-Sealdah is incomplete. KMRC and Metro Railway, which operates the city’s rapid transit network, are targeting a deadline of mid-2025 to complete the Esplanade-Sealdah section so that the corridor, India’s first under-river metro, can run its entire 16 km.
Work in the subsidence-prone Esplanade-Sealdah section has suffered repeated setbacks and the movement of rakes every week has further slowed the pace. Whenever a rake is taken from the Howrah section to the Salt Lake depot, which has facilities to examine and clean the rakes, the third rail (from which the rakes draw electricity) of the eastbound rake should be loaded. And all civil construction would stop. Therefore, the authorities have given ITD contractors ITD-Cementation a one-month power block from November 11 to December 13 to speed up the work.
The feeder block in progress facilitated the last stage of track laying work. When it is lifted on December 14, civil construction will be blocked for two days. Meanwhile, on Saturday, the two rakes operating for the past two weeks on the Howrah Maidan-Esplanade stretch were replaced with those parked on the westbound tunnel.