Kolkata Metro

The proposed link will join the metro rail's northern terminal station Dumdum with Dakhineshwar at the banks of river Hoogly. Last Friday, at a meeting at the Rail Bhawan here, Prasad asked the Railway Board to go ahead with the plan. Railway Board Chairman K C Jena has ordered a feasibility study for the project.

The work on the extension of the southern part of the Kolkata Metro is on, while a new east-west line was approved by the Union cabinet recently. The proposed extension in the north will serve as a nodal point for many passengers from the neighbouring district.

The total cost of the proposed extension will be Rs 526 crore. The state government has already expressed its willingness to bear 50 per cent of this cost. "We are expecting a formal announcement during the supplementary budget in the coming Parliament session in December," says Basudeb Acharia, chairman of the Parliamentary standing committee on the railways.

The Union cabinet recently approved an underwater link on the east-west route of the Kolkata Metro to help passengers from the neighbouring district of Howrah to avail metro rail facilities.

The company has got enquiries from Bangladesh and other parts of India, such as Delhi, Pune, Patna, Bhubaneswar and Guwahati, to start monorails.

"The West Bengal government has given us permission to start a monorail that will cover a stretch of 20 kms from Budge Budge to Taratala. The monorail, which will have four coaches, each with its own electric generator and the capacity to accommodate 150 passengers, will be of hybrid technology," said Andromeda chairman PC Sen. He was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the Biz Bridge seminar organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry.

On the financials, Sen said, "It will involve a cost of around Rs 1,200 crore, out of which the debt component will make up Rs 1,000 crore, from non-resident Indians, and Rs 200 crore the equity component, which is expected by the end of December from a foreign partner." He declined to divulge details of the debt and equity partners.

Derap AG and Helbing Tecknik AG of Switzerland are the technical partners of Andromeda in this monorail venture. The 20-km stretch could be later extended up to 52 kms, according to Sen.

KMRC has engaged RITES for preparing the detailed project report of the probable expansion. The funding agency for the Metro project, Japan Bank of International Cooperation (JBIC), has agreed to fund the extension, too.

The decision came after a study commissioned by the transport department emphasized a mass rapid transit System (MRTS) connectivity between the airport and the rest of the city. Currently, the annual passenger handling capacity of the two airport terminals is six million. Once the integrated building becomes operational, it will jump to 20 million. While 6,000 private cars and taxis now visit the airport daily, the figure will go up to 24,000 after modernization. The MRTS can take a lot of pressure off its passenger-dispersal system. Airports in most major cities of the world are linked with an efficient MRTS. But Kolkata remains an exception.

Having burnt its fingers in Singur and Nandigram over the land acquisition issue, the Left Front government is keeping its fingers crossed on the east-west Metro corridor project for which hundreds of shopkeepers and families will have to be relocated and rehabilitated.

The state transport minister, Subhas Chakraborty, avoids making comments on the project. Till date he has claimed that there has been no "political resistance" to the issue and work on the project is going on smoothly.

"The land has to be acquired for the stations at Writers' Buildings, Central Avenue and Bowbazar. We have drawn up a rehabilitation package for both shopkeepers and residents. While shopkeepers will get shops at new locations, the displaced families will be allotted plots. Apart from it, attractive cash package will also be given to them to build houses," Chakraborty said.

But the situation on the ground shows otherwise. The shopkeepers in the project area are still in dark over the rehabilitation package. Except for one meeting held at Writers' Buildings, the proprietors have not received any communication from the state government.

"They should never make this a permanent feature. We already had reserved seats in general compartments but now with two ladies compartments at two extreme ends it is very confusing and troublesome," Sananda Das, a student of Jaipuria College, said.

But there were others who were glad that for two months they would be able to travel in exclusive compartments. "It is a good initiative as sometimes women have to face problems in crowded compartments. Although today there was a lot of confusion but from tomorrow people will get used it," Anindita Bakshi, a house wife, said.

Sheila Nandi, who was traveling to Park Street, was full of suggestions. "It would have been better if they would have earmarked the second coach for women as those who come late tend to get onto the first coach," she said.

A few months ago, the state had planned to shift the tenants with shops on BB Ganguly Street and Brabourne Road from places where the Metro stations are coming up to Rajarhat. Similar proposals were also given to local residents.

The idea was also to leave a parking space in the station area as well as a plot for traffic integration. Since parking is a problem in the central business district, this was crucial. In Delhi, 70% stations have space for parking 200 to 300 cars and the same could have been done in Kolkata.

This space would automatically have been created as many buildings on the two streets would have to be demolished for work of the two stations, Mahakaran (Writers' Buildings) and Central. Though these are underground stations, the above-ground structures in the area, where the stations are coming up, have to be demolished for construction.

But this plan has been changed completely now. According to an official preparing the rehabilitation package, the tenants put their foot down and insisted they did not want to be shifted so far away. One of the most significant changes in the plan has, therefore, been cutting down the parking space and the traffic integration space remarkably -- close to 30-50% -- thereby making way to relocate as many tenants as possible in the same place.

The Railway Board was contemplating this for quite some time now. On Monday, chairman K C Jena met Bhattacharjee and briefed him on the proposal. State chief secretary Amit Kiran Deb had also discussed the matter with Jena during his visit to New Delhi recently.

"The chief minister was actually happy with the proposal. The modalities will now have to be worked out. Once it happens, the entire railway network within the city of Kolkata will come under a single nodal body. This will certainly improve coordination," a senior railway officer said.

A few years ago, the central government had decided that all urban transport projects (including Metro Railway) would be taken up by the state governments in consultation with the Union ministry of urban development as the nodal authority. The cost sharing for urban railway projects would be divided between the state governments and the nodal ministry. This effectively meant that the ministry of railways would have nothing to do with urban railway projects, save providing advisory services.

The Delhi Metro Railway Corporation was set up on these lines. The West Bengal government was also contemplating a metro railway corridor running east to west. After the ministry of railways refused to play any part in the project, KMRC was set up as a joint venture company of the Centre and the state government. It was authorized suitable capital with the two promoters taking equity shares as envisaged in the financing pattern.

The authorities have decided to reserve two compartments for the women passengers between 9 a.m. and 7 p.m. daily in all the trains from 1 September. This is in addition to the seats that are already reserved for woman in all the compartments of the Metro trains. The service will continue till 31 October.

"Male commuters boarding the reserved compartments would be fined," said the spokesperson.
Metro Railways have decided to run 12 extra trains during the Durga Puja. They have also decided to install four new escalators at Rabindra Sarabor, Park Street, Central and MG Road Metro stations.

The state has requested the Centre to fund the project, as it did in the case of the Garia extension from Tollygunge. So far, the railways has funded two-thirds of the cost, while the state's share was one-third. But the new norm is that both the Centre and the state would share the costs 50:50.

Chakraborty approached the railway minister over the extension issue during the all-India transport council meeting in New Delhi. "Laluji has agreed to consider our view. The total project cost would be Rs 535 crore. If the project works out, a large number of people will benefit," he said.

Meanwhile, some problems have cropped up over choosing the site for the East-West Metro's underground platform at Howrah station. "Earlier, it had been decided that the Metro platform would be constructed 18 metres below platform 11 of Howrah station. But Eastern Railway has demanded Rs 40 crore for the relocation of underground services, which is too high. This would escalate the total project cost," Chakraborty said.

The project will help millions of commuters but nearly 800 trees have to be felled to make way for the Metro stations between Swabhumi and Sector V in Salt Lake.

The decision to cut trees was taken after prolonged discussions among the transport department, Bidhannagar Municipality and the forest department. Total area under the Metro stretch from Howrah station to Sector V station is 13.7 km, of which 5.7 km falls under the stretch from Swabhumi to Sector V.

Divisional Forest officer, M Rahaman said, "This is a small price to pay for a major development work. Millions will benefit from the project."

Environmentalist Subhas Dutta said: "Trees cannot be felled randomly in the name of development. As per norms, compensatory tree plantation should be undertaken within 5 km of the area from where the trees are felled."

In this endeavour, it plans terminals for the Metro's feeder buses that will enter the city with passengers, who will eventually avail of the EW Metro for their onward journey within the city. "Feeder buses may drop passengers at the entrance to the proposed Metro station and pick them up from its exits. We may have to re-route a few buses, too," explained a transport department official. Besides, common tickets will be introduced for the existing north-south Metro, the proposed E-W Metro and the feeder buses.

Besides, there are plans to regulate the movement of taxis and share autos between the two points. "It will not be viable for taxis or autos to ply on the same route. Certain restrictions will be imposed on them. The auto routes will be planned in a way that does not clash with the Metro underground," said transport secretary Sumantra Chaudhuri.

"Thought we had built Bimanbandar station keeping in mind the rise in passengers' demand coming by flights, we will now have to think about other ways as the travelers don't opt for this facility," chief personal relation manager (Eastern Railway) Dipak Jha told reporters.

Railway authorities have recently spent Rs 1.2 lakh for a survey to study about how this route commencing from Sealdah to Dum Dum cantonment in North 24 Parganas can be attached with the Metro Railway.

"The metro railway is conducting the survey and after their submitting the report, we will decide to implement the project or not," Jha said.

"A lot of tourists will come only to see these stations," said a senior transport department official. Officials from the department recently met some leading architects of the country for the design of the landmark stations.

The stations at Salt Lake stadium, City Centre, Karunamoyee and Sector V will be the new icons of the city. "These four places have some unique features. For example, the Salt Lake Stadium station will have a sports complex at one side and the Swabhumi Heritage Park and Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals on the other. So, the station will reflect these features," said chief traffic transportation engineer B K Sadhu.

Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation (KMRC) will engage international firms to design and construct its Howrah and Sealdah stations. These two points are very important as a huge volume of passenger traffic will shift from the surface railway to the underground railway network.

For one, these experts from the Indian Railways and the Delhi Metro Railway Corporation (DMRC) are not happy with Kolkata Metro Railway Corporation's (KMRC) plans to start construction from the Salt Lake end.

"This is a mistake that many agencies make. The most difficult stretch is the underground one between Howrah and Sealdah. This will also turn out to be the most popular stretch. Ideally, work should start from Central station and proceed in both directions," a senior officer said.

The 13.7-km stretch will have 12 stations in Howrah, Mahakaran, Central, Bowbazar, Sealdah, Phoolbagan, Salt Lake Stadium, Bengal Chemical, City Centre, Central Park, Karunamoyee and Salt Lake Sector V. The first six will be underground and the rest elevated.