Line 1, Kolkata Metro

History

The laying of the founding stone was done in 1972, but actual construction of line 1 started only in 1978. Line 1 is 17 km. long with 17 stations (see above). Running of the first metro car on the line by 1984 was considered a great engineering challenge.Former railways minister A. B. A. Ghani Khan Chowdhury took a massive effort to perform it. The first section opened between Esplanade & Bhowanipore (now called Netaji Bhawan). First day Metro Railway Kolkata were started by Sri Tapan Kumar Nath and Sri Sanjay Sil. There were no connections of this stretch with the two depots at Dum Dum & Tollygunge (Now called Mahanayak Uttam Kumar). So metro cars had to be put down on the track near Esplanade by crane, by directly digging the road surface. Initially, only four car trains were run until 1986. There were no magnetic gates or escalators at that time and ordinary revolving gates served as exits. The Metro too operated on only a single line. Two years later, line 1 extended up to Tollygunge, at the southern end. At the same time, the metro service was extended to the double line. Magnetic tickets and more entry gates were also introduced at that time. The number of compartments in each train was increased to eight.

Metro service was also started from Dum Dum, at the northern end, to Belgachhia in parallel with the extension of the line to the south. But this short portion was not popular and the service was closed down to be restarted when the entire stretch along the north–south corridor was completed.

After 1986 many political incidents hampered the construction, and work almost stopped for nearly six years. After restarting work, the Dum Dum to Shyambazar metro service was started in 1994. This portion was served by four car trains. Two months later, the Esplanade – Chandni Chowk section was opened, and Chandni Chowk – Central section opened three months later. The service from Dum Dum to Tollygunge started in 1995, with Mahatma Gandhi Road Station, being opened in 1996. During this time, more magnetic gates and escalators were added and the revolving gates were slowly phased out.

Timeline

The following dates represent the dates the section opened to the public, not the private inauguration.

Stations

The stations of this Corridors are:

Alignment & interchanges

Dum Dum, Park Street, Mahanayak Uttam Kumar (Tollygunge), Netaji (Kundghat), Masterda Surya Sen (Bansdroni), Geetanjali (Naktala), Kavi Nazrul (Garia Bazar), Shahid Khudiram (Briji) and Kavi Subhash (New Garia) have side platforms; all other stations have island platforms. Central and Noapara, are exceptions as it has both platforms on the sides as well as in the centre. Dum Dum, Kavi Subhash (New Garia), Rabindra Sarobar & Shobhabazar Sutanuti have connections to interchange with standard railway while Belgachhia, Shyambazar, Esplanade & Kalighat have connections to the tram network. Tram lines also serve Shobhabazar Sutanuti, Mahatma Gandhi Road, Central, Jatin Das Park, Rabindra Sarobar & Mahanayak Uttam Kumar (Tollygunge) stations. Previously Park street & Maidan stations were also served by tram. The EM Bypass can be accessed from the Shahid Khudiram (Briji) metro station.

Extension up to Kavi Subhash Metro Station (New Garia)

Extension up to Kavi Subhash Metro Station (New Garia)[edit] Mamata Banerjee during her first tenure as the railway minister initiated the project of Tollygunj – Garia metro extension. During her second tenure (2009–2011) she inaugurated the extension, and also introduced new state-of-the-art Air Conditioned rakes, manufactured indigenously at the Integral Coach Factory, at Perambur near Chennai.

The new extension to Garia Bazar in the south opened to public on 23 August 2009. The Garia Bazar station was named after Kavi Nazrul. A final extension from Kavi Nazrul (Garia Bazar) to Kavi Subhash (New Garia) was inaugurated on 7 October 2010, bringing the total number of stations to 23. On the same day two Air-Conditioned rakes were also pressed into service.

Future extension

The plan to extend Line 1 in the north from Dumdum to Dakshineswar (5.2 km) is under execution. The construction of this stretch started in February 2010. It will be met by the metro line from Barrackpore at Baranagar (12.5 km).

The stations on this stretch will be:

1. Dumdum
2. Ma Sarada Devi (Noapara)
3. Swami Vivekananda (Baranagar)
4. Dakshineswar

Technical features

Metro construction is of a very complex nature requiring application of several new technologies in the fields of civil, electrical, signaling and telecommunication engineering. Indian engineers backed by their own experience and supplemented by their studies abroad, adopted advanced technologies in the following fields for the first time in India.

Rolling stock

The whole fleet is vestibuled. Carbodies and mechanical components were made by ICF Chennai with electrical components made by NGEF, Bangalore. The fleet is unique in that it is the only railroad equipment in India with end-mounted cab doors (except for some of the WAG-6 series locomotives).

ICF has specifically designed, manufactured and supplied these cars for the Kolkata Metro Underground Railway System. The special features incorporated are:

With all these features, the design and manufacturing process of these cars to a very high standard of reliability and safety has been a challenge. This was achieved without any technical collaboration. The entire fleet is capable of carrying 2356 passengers.

From October 2010, the process of phasing out of the current class of rolling stock was started and replaced by new air-conditioned cars 13 of which have been already pressed into service. Out of a total of 18 trainsets (non AC) owned by the Kolkata Metro, 11 are supposed to be retired within a few years and the remaining seven will be rebuilt with new features including air conditioning, which is badly needed.

The 13 state of the art AC rakes have the following features :-

The new air-conditioned rolling stock was manufactured by ICF in collaboration with BHEL and Knorr Bremse, Germany.

Reservation for women

In 2008, the Kolkata Metro Railway experimented with the practice of reserving two entire compartments for women.

This system was found to be ineffective and caused inconvenience for a lot of commuters (including women) and the plan was eventually dropped by the metro authority. But a certain section of seats in each of the eight compartments is reserved for women.

Fare structure

The Metro fare is distance-based. Fare structure on Metro Railway was last revised with effect from 01.10.2013 after a gap of three years. The present fare structure is as below:

Tokens

The previous ticketing system of magnetic tickets has been scrapped and tokens are being used in its placed since July 2011. The system requires touch-free gates that function through radio-frequency identification rather than the old magnetic-strip reader. The Centre for Railway Information Systems, which has implemented the Rs 415 million project, gave the contract to a Spanish firm last year after a global bidding process.

Features of token system

1. Tokens is being reused, hence saving paper which also reduces chance of damage done to the paper pasted tickets.
2. The number of passenger can enter within 30 secs. This will ensure smooth passage of commuters.
3. This will also help to improve security in the sense that earlier many people used to travel without tickets.

Smart cards

Smart cards were also introduced a month later after the introduction of token system. The advantages of using Smart cards is the flexibility which allows daily passengers to travel into any zone without worrying of taking the token of exact zone. Another advantage it offers over regular tokens is the reduced effective cost of travel. A fully refundable security deposit of Rs 100 has to be made to obtain these smart cards. Presently the deposit is Rs 60.

Problems with Line 1

The coaches were manufactured by ICF with no air-conditioning Indian Railways signalling was adopted instead of European signalling.

The founder of Delhi Metro, E. Sreedharan said Indian Railways are not experts at urban transport, and mis-planned the Kolkata metro from the beginning. A private company should run the metro and can bring it up to standard in five years.

All new lines of the Kolkata Metro, starting with Line 2, will be operated by Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation Ltd. (KMRC).