Kolkata Metro After the extension of East West Metro services from Salt Lake Sector V to the busy Sealdah station, the number of passengers increased by almost five times.
This extension of Kolkata Metro services on Thursday produced very encouraging results, with the number of passengers increasing almost five times till 5 pm on the first day, an official said.
The East West Metro service, which earlier ran between Sector V and Phulbagan, has been extended up to Sealdah, a distance of 2.33 km from Phulbagan.
According to Metro Railway spokesperson Eklavya Chakraborty, the number of passengers rose to 18,000 by 5 pm, as against 3,500 daily in the earlier days.
The Metro covers the 9-km journey between Sealdah and the IT hub in Sector V in 20 minutes, compared to over an hour’s journey by road during peak hours.
Officials have estimated a daily passenger count of around 35,000 after the extension of services to Sealdah, which connects the surrounding districts through the suburban railway network.
Union Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani on Monday inaugurated the underground Sealdah Metro railway station of the East-West Metro Corridor in Kolkata.
Smriti Irani said that the expansion of Sealdah, a terminal railway station in the city, would help around 35,000 commuters from adjoining districts in their daily commute.
According to Indian Railways, the 2.33 km long metro railway section between Phulbagan and Sealdah was constructed at a cost of ________. 1,250 crores. It will take only 21 minutes to cover the distance from Sealdah to Sector V, which is usually an hour’s journey by road.
The foundation stone for the East-West Metro project, which would connect Howrah with Sealdah and Salt Lake when fully operational, was laid in February 2009 by the then Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.
Sealdah station is a part of the East-West corridor, a part of which is built under the Hooghly River, the first of its kind in India. Out of the 16.6 km long East-West Metro route, the underground corridor is 10.8 km between Howrah and Phulbagan.
Metro construction slowed down in May as several houses in central Kolkata’s Bobazar area developed cracks during underground work, delaying the completion of the project from its scheduled date of December, 2021.
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