Under-Water Metro Train

Path-breaking

It will be connecting two main terminals: Howrah and Sealdah — each of which has a footfall of about 10-12 lakh passengers per day,' Satish Kumar, managing director of KMRCL told.

Challenges ahead

The project is one unique challenge for Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation Limited. Around 10 lakh tonnes of mud has been dug up for the tunnel construction.

Since the tunnel is going through many heritage buildings, special care has been taken to ensure no harm shall be caused to them.

How long will it be?

The length of the track is going to be 16.6 km and the train is said to run without a driver.

 Will be completed by 2019

The train would carry around 1,000 passengers in one go and will have six air-conditioned coaches.

With the cost of Rs 60 crore, the project is expected to be completed by December 2019.
The underwater tunnel is a crucial link for the railways’ 16.6-km long East-West Metro project in Kolkata.
The 520-metre twin tunnel, one east-bound and the other west-bound, is built 30 metre below the riverbed. Commuters between Howrah and Mahakaran metro stations will be under the river for only about a minute when the metro train will pass through the tunnel at a speed of 80 km per hour. Of the 16.6-km route of the East-West Metro project, the tunneling covers 10.6 km, of which 520 metre is under the river.



The underwater tunnel is being built at a cost of Rs60 crore while the total cost of the East-West Metro project is estimated to be around Rs9,000 crore. The tunneling work started in April last year and likely to be completed in the river section shortly, a senior railway ministry official said.
The East-West Metro is scheduled to be operational by August 2019. The diameter of each tunnel is 5.55 metre and the thickness of the wall is 275 milimetre. The distance between the two tunnels is 16.1 metre.
There will be walkways in the tunnels for evacuation of passengers in case of emergency, the official said, adding it was a challenging task to dig a tunnel under the river.
For the railways, besides the tunnel under the Hooghly river, drilling work is going on for the seven-km-long under- sea route of the Mumbai-Ahmedabad rail corridor to ascertain soil condition for India’s first bullet train path.
Passengers will get the thrill of travelling under the sea at a maximum speed of 350 km/hour, another first in the country, near Thane in the upcoming high-speed train project connecting the two metropolis. PTI