Kolkata Metro becomes India's first metro train to run under river

Tags: National News

On 12 April 2023, the Kolkata Metro reached Howrah from Kolkata through a river tunnel for the first time in India, carrying only officers and engineers. This tunnel is built across the Hooghly River.

An Overview of the News: 

• Services on this route of Kolkata Metro will start from this year itself. Once the services start, Howrah will become the country's deepest metro station (33 meters below the surface).

520 meter long tunnel:

• The route from Howrah to Esplanade is about 4.8 km long, of which 520 m will be completed by tunneling under the Hooghly river. It will take about 45 seconds to cross this tunnel built across the Hubli river.
• The tunnel is 32 meters below the surface of the water. The entire length of this tunnel is 10.8 km underground.

Tunnel built on the lines of Eurostar

• This tunnel of Kolkata Metro has been built like the Eurostar trains passing through the Channel Tunnel in Europe between London and Paris.
• The work of digging this tunnel was completed by Afcons in four months (April-July 2017).

Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation (KMRC):

• The Kolkata Metro Rail was inaugurated on 24 October 1984 as India's first metro.
• Now again, for the first time in the country, the tunnel under the river has also been built here, the Kolkata Metro.
• The tunnel will remain like this for 120 years

Based on the standard of tunnel seismic zone 3:

• The Kolkata Metro tunnel has been designed according to seismic zone 3, the zone in which Kolkata falls.

Kolkata metro tunnel age 120 years: 

• The Kolkata Metro tunnel is designed for a service life of 120 years. Not even a drop of water can enter the tunnels of the river.
• General Manager of Kolkata Metro Railway: P Udaya Kumar Reddy
• MD of Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation (KMRC): H N Jaiswal