Kolkata Metro Line 2

Kolkata Metro Line 2 East–West Metro
Overview
Type	Rapid transit
System	Kolkata Metro
Status	Under Construction
Locale	Kolkata
Termini	Howrah Maidan (west) Salt Lake Sector 5 (east)
Stations	12
Daily ridership	4 lakhs or 0.47 million by 2015 (projected)
Website	KMRC
Operation
Planned opening	June 2018[1]
Operator(s)	KMRC
Character	Underground – 6 Elevated – 6
Depot(s)	Central Park , Saltlake
Rolling stock	Bharat Earth Movers Limited BEML
Technical
Line length	16.6 kilometres (10.3 mi) Underground : 10.83 kilometres (6.73 mi) Elevated : 5.77 kilometres (3.59 mi) Proposes: 15 kilometres (9.3 mi)
Number of tracks	2
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) standard gauge
Electrification	750 V DC[2] using third rail
Operating speed	80 km/h (designed)

Line 2, also known as the East-West Corridor of the Kolkata Metro is a rapid transit system under construction which will connect Salt Lake in Kolkata with Howrah by going underneath the Hooghly River/Ganga in the Indian state of West Bengal. It would consist of 12 stations from Salt Lake Sector V in the east to Howrah Maidan in the west, of which 6 would be elevated and 6 would be underground, with a total distance of 14.67 km.

The East-West corridor of the Kolkata Metro is under construction at Howrah Maidan in August 2012.

History

The master plan had already identified the corridor way back in 1971. But the experience of India’s first metro and the success of the Delhi metro network contributed to the sanction of the East – West Metro corridor which will connect Howrah Railway Station with the Satellite City of Salt Lake underneath the Hooghly River. In January 2004, Pacific Consultant International Group conducted a feasibility study for the line. The report proposed the route and tubular structures under the Hooghly River.

A new organisation was formed known as Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation Limited (KMRC) which will be executing the operations of this Line thus starting the physical construction in 2009.^[3] Of KMRC's eight directors, four each are from the state and central governments. The cost is being shared between the state government (30 per cent), the Union Urban Development Ministry (25 per cent), and the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) (45 per cent).^[4] But as of 2011 most of the share of this project went to Indian Railways with Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC). The project is estimated at a cost of ₹50 billion (US$780 million).^[5]

But due to some major set backs the project got delayed. These were mainly due to Land Acquisition, slum relocation and route alignment problems. The East-West Metro was originally slated to be operational by 2012, but is later pushed back to 2015. The first phase, a stretch of 9 km, is currently expected to be operational in June 2018 and the second phase, 6 km in length, will be operational by June 2019.

Current Status

As of May 2017:

• Elevated Corridor: Out of the total length of 5.75 KM, 5.374 KM have been completed leaving 365 meters in Duttabad to be completed. Rehabilitation of people living Duttabad have been completed with active collaboration between state and central government. Construction of piers have been completed at Duttabad and elevated corridor is being built using steel girders instead of pre-stressed balance (PSB) cantilever. 3.4 KM of ballast less track have been laid on the elevated section.
• 6 Elevated Station : Structural work for elevated stations have been completed. Roofing work in all the elevated stations except for Salt Lake Sector V have been completed. Architectural and electrical work in the elevated stations is supposed to be completed in March 2018.
• Underground Tunnel for Phase 1: 5490 meters of tunnel have been constructed. Two tunnel boring machines have been deployed in this section. All the cross passes between the two tunnels have also been completed.
• Underground Stations for Phase 1: Underground stations are to be constructed by cut and cover method. The structural work at Phoolbagan and Sealdah station has been completed.
• Underground Tunnel for Phase 2: Work at Howrah Maidan have started in March 2016. The section between Howrah Maidan and Mahakaran station is being built by Afcons – Transtonnelstroy JV team, two tunnel boring machines from Herrenknecht are being used to dig the tunnel. This section will pass through the river Hooghly for a distance of 520 meters. The section under the river will be at a depth of 30 meters (roof to ground distance) whereas the average roof to ground distance is 17 meters. The Howrah station on the west side of the river will be at a depth of 24 meters. On 23rd May one of the TBM named Rachna completed the tunneling under the Hoogly river in 36 days. The other TBM named Prerna is supposed to start digging beneath the river on 24th May. The section between Sealdah and Mahakaran station was realigned due to the objection of GoWB.
• Underground Stations for Phase 2: Construction of Howrah Maidan station have started. At Esplanade the tram depot have been moved to start construction of the new station.
• Train Depot: The construction of train depot is nearing completion at Salt Lake Central Park.

After multiple delays the Phase-I have been scheduled to be opened in July 2018.

Timelines

• 2009: Physical Construction of EW corridor starts.
• 2009: KMRC awards rolling stock contract to Spain’s Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (CAF).
• 2009: Contract for building the overground stations and viaduct awarded to Gammon and Simplex Infrastructure.
• 2009: Contract for building the underground section from Subhash Sarabor to Central Station awarded to ITD-ITD Cementation JV.
• 2010: Contract for building the underground section from Central to Howrah Maidan awarded to Afcons.

• 2012: Realignment proposed to avoid shifting of 80 families from Bowbazar and hawkers from Brabourne Road.
• 2015: Realignment approved by Railways and JICA in between Sealdah to Howrah station.
• 2015: Subodh Mullick Square station, a key stop in the revised blueprint, done away with to avoid eviction of hawkers.
• 2014: CAF pulls away from KMRC rolling stock contract due to cost escalation.
• 2016-Feb: Rolling stock contract for 14 rakes having 6 coaches awarded to BEML.
• 2017-March: Afcons nick names the tunnel boring machine as Prerna and Rachna inspired from the names of daughter of their employee.
• 2017-May-23: First TBM completes tunneling the East bound tunnel under the Hoogly river.
• 2017-June-21: Second TBM completes tunneling the West bound tunnel under the river Hoogly.
• 2017-June: Permission received from Archaeological Survey of India for construction of tunnel within 100 meters of three heritage buildings.
• 2017-July: People from 11 buildings in Brebourne Road evacuated in phased manner when the TBM's passes below these old buildings.

List of stations (East to West)

Kolkata Metro Line 2 Route
Salt Lake Sector V Karunamoyee Central Park City Center Bengal Chemical Salt Lake Stadium Phoolbagan Sealdah Esplanade Mahakaran Hooghly River Howrah Station Howrah Maidan

Line 2 (East West Corridor)
No.	Station Name			Location	Opening	Connections	Layout	Coordinates	Notes
	English	Bengali	Hindi
1	Salt Lake Sector V	সল্ট লেক সেক্টর V	सौल्ट लेक सेक्टर ५	Bidhannagar	Under Construction	Kolkata Metro Line 6 (Under Construction)	Elevated	22°34′52″N 88°25′44″E / 22.581031°N 88.428991°E / 22.581031; 88.428991	Also known as IT hub of Kolkata
2	Karunamoyee	করুণাময়ী	करुणामयी	Bidhannagar	Under Construction	None	Elevated	22°35′12″N 88°25′17″E / 22.586674°N 88.421268°E / 22.586674; 88.421268	International bus terminus
3	Central Park	সেন্ট্রাল পার্ক	सेंट्रल पार्क	Bidhannagar	Under Construction	None	Elevated
4	City Center	সিটি সেন্টার	सिटी सेंटर	Bidhannagar	Under Construction	None	Elevated		near Bidhannagar College
5	Bengal Chemical	বেঙ্গল কেমিক্যালস	बंगाल केमिकल्स	Bidhannagar	Under Construction	None	Elevated
6	Salt Lake Stadium	সল্ট লেক স্টেডিয়াম	सौल्ट लेक स्टेडियम	Bidhannagar	Under Construction	None	Elevated		largest stadium in India
7	Phoolbagan	ফুলবাগান	फूलबगान	Phoolbagan	Under Construction	None	Underground
8	Sealdah	শিয়ালদহ	सियालदाह	Sealdah	Under Construction	Sealdah railway station(Indian Railways)	Underground		change for local suburb trains and national trains
9	Esplanade	এসপ্ল্যানেড	एस्प्लानेड	Dharmatala	Under Construction	Kolkata Metro Line 1      Kolkata Metro Line 3	Underground		Also Known as Dharmatala (ধর্মতলা)
10	Mahakaran	মহাকরণ	महाकरण	B. B. D. Bagh	Under Construction	None	Underground		Also known as B. B. D. Bagh
11	Howrah Station	হাওড়া স্টেশন	हावड़ा स्टेशन	Howrah	Under Construction	Howrah Station(Indian Railways)	Underground		change for local and national trains.
12	Howrah Maidan	হাওড়া ময়দান	हावड़ा मैदान	Howrah	Under Construction	None	Underground

Infrastructure

Stations

Karunamoyee Metro Station Under Construction - 3rd Avenue , Salt Lake City, Kolkata

All the stations in this line will be equipped with Platform Screen Doors to keep people away from the tracks.^[6] Mott MacDonald is the detailed design consultant for all the elevated stations, whereas Lee Harris Pomeroy Architects have designed all the underground stations. Out of the 6 underground stations, 3 will be built by ITD Cementation, a part of Italian-Thai Development Public Company and the other 3 will be built by Afcons including the 520 meters underwater stretch. All the elevated stations will be built by Kolkata based Simplex Infrastructure ltd.^[7][8]

Electrification & Signalling

The line will have two types of signalling equipment supplied by ANSALDO STS . One will feature cab signalling and continuous automatic train control with automatic train protection. The other signalling equipment will include an integrated system featuring fibre optic cable, SCADA, radios and a PA system. The line will also have a train information system, control telephones and a centralised clock system.

Operations

Unlike the north-south corridor, the east-west metro will run from 5 am to 11 pm at a frequency of 2.5 minutes during peak hours and 5 minutes during non-peak hours.^[9]

Rolling stock

CAF in collaboration with Melco was to supply 14 trains for this line.^[10] The 14 rakes were acquired at a cost of approximately €110m^[2] ₹6 billion (US$94 million). Each rake will compose of 6 coaches having a capacity of 2068 people per train.^[10] The maximum speed of the train will be 90 km/h. The first lot of trains was to be manufactured in Spain and imported to Kolkata in November 2014. The next lot was to be manufactured in India. However, the tender was cancelled by KMRC due to technical reasons^[11] and a re-tender was issued in July 2015. BEML emerged as the only bidder in the fourth round of bidding for providing rolling stock.^[12] The contract for providing the rakes have been awarded to BEML.^[13] BEML have earlier provided rakes for Delhi and Bangalore Metro. Fourteen trains, each with six coaches, are expected to be supplied to the East-West Metro.

Environmental Impact

The elevated section that has been constructed at SaltLake( Bidhannagar) was earlier flanked with trees at the central meridian. All the trees have been felled for the purpose of building the elevated viaduct. There has been no report if adequate re-plantation have been done to compensate the felling of trees. The Central park train depot have come up in Central Park, which was earlier a thickly wooded area. Almost 30% of Central Park which is the lungs of the eastern park of the city have been occupied for building the train depot. Other parts of central park have been used to create cricket and football sports centre, swimming pool, bus stand, fair ground, underground water storage facility and most appalling a convention hall.

Proposed Extensions

The West Bengal government have proposed an extension to the East-West metro line. In this proposal the East West Metro will be connected to the Airport Garia Metro near Haldiram stoppage. According to this proposal the East West Metro will have 3 terminating stations at Howrah Maidan, Sector V and the proposed Haldiram station. At Haldiram it will be connected to the Airport-Garia metro route and interconnection facilities will be present. The extension and the present route will converge at the Central Park Station.^[14] The proposed extension is under study and it will need several clearances before being implemented. A 10 km East-West Metro extension project from Howrah Maidan to Santragachi bus terminus has been proposed. Rites, the implementing agency for this project, is set to start work on the corridor early in 2017.^[15]

Clogging of drains in Howrah due to silt excavated and discharge of untreated waste water have been reported.^[16]

See also

• Kolkata Metro
• List of Kolkata metro stations
• Kolkata Metro Rolling Stock
• List of rapid transit systems
• Kolkata tram
• Kolkata Lightrail
• Kolkata Monorail
• Kolkata Suburban Railway

References

External links

• Official Website for line 2