Comments
Kolkata Metro’s 17 km-long Joka-BBD Bag link now awaits clearance from defence authorities for three acres of land. The land, identified between Victoria Memorial and Maidan area, will be used to build the underground stations and out-gates.
Metro Railway Kolkata, the executing authority of the Rs 2,619-crore project connecting Joka (near IIM Kolkata) with the central business district, had appointed RITES as a consultant to conduct a feasibility survey for the proposed underground leg of the route passing largely through territories of Indian Army.
According to Mr Protyush Ghosh, Deputy General Manager, Metro Railway, they have received the primary report of the survey, which was due for more than one-and-a-half years.
“As the defence authorities allowed us to conduct a survey, we hope to get the land soon,” he said.
The survey, conducted by RITES, suggests a realignment of the underground track after Hastings to reach Victoria station. The underground stretch will have five stations – Kidderpore, Victoria, Park Street, Esplanade and BBD Bag.
The original plan was to have an elevated corridor for the entire link.
However, the route map was revised after security concerns raised by the defence authorities. The Metro Railway opted to go for an underground track after the proposed Mominpur station.
The Joka-BBD Bag metro link was earlier slated to be commissioned by 2014-15. But, due to delay in approval for nearly eight km of the stretch, it is already running one year behind the schedule.
“Construction work on the nearly nine km elevated stretch of the link are nearing completion. We expect to commence services on the elevated portion from Joka to Mominpur by end of 2014,” Mr Ghosh said.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.