Type Rapid transit Status Under Construction Stations 12 | System Kolkata Metro Locale Kolkata | |
 | ||
Termini Howrah Maidan (west)
Salt Lake Sector 5 (east) | ||
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 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.
Contents
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. 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). 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$740 million).
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 Aug 2016:
After multiple delays the Phase-I have been scheduled to be opened in July 2018. But there are plans to open Phase-I in December 2017.
Stations
All the stations in this line will be equipped with Platform Screen Doors to keep people away from the tracks. 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.
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.
Rolling stock
CAF in collaboration with Melco was to supply 14 trains for this line. The 14 rakes were acquired at a cost of approximately €110m ₹6 billion (US$89 million). Each rake will compose of 6 coaches having a capacity of 2068 people per train. 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 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. The contract for providing the rakes have been awarded to BEML. 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. 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.