PM Modi Travels In India's 1st Underwater Metro With Students In Kolkata | Watch

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday unveiled India’s first underwater metro in Kolkata and went for a ride along with school students and metro staffers.

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Earlier, he inaugurated and laid foundation stone of several development projects worth Rs 15,400 crore. Following which, he flagged off a metro train between Howrah Maidan and Esplanade on Kolkata’s East-West corridor, heralding the country’s first under-river tunnel transportation.

He also inaugurated the Kavi Subhash-Hemanta Mukhopadhyay section of the New Garia – Airport Metro and the Taratala-Majerhat Metro section of the Joka-Esplanade Metro.

Of the 4.8 km-long metro tunnel between the two stations — Howrah Maidan and Esplanade — the distance of 1.2 km is 30 metres below the Hooghly river.

After flagging off the metro train, the prime minister went for a ride in the underwater metro along with school students. During this small metro journey, he interacted with the students and with Metro staffers.

Amid chants of “Modi, Modi” and “Jai Shri Ram”, the prime minister greeted the slew of people at a station after his metro ride. The electrifying energy of the people filled up the entire metro station.

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This project not only is the “country’s first transportation tunnel under any might river”, it will also lead the Howrah metro station to be the deepest in India.

The tunnel, which is a part of the East-West Metro Corridor project, start from Sector V in Salt Lake and ends at Sealdah at present. It will be extended to the Howrah Maidan station covering a total distance of 16.6 km, of which 10.8 km is underground.

THE EAST-WEST CORRIDOR

According to Metro Railway, the East-West corridor was identified in Kolkata city’s master plan in 1971. The success of India’s first metro in Kolkata and that of Delhi Metro network paved the way for the planners to sanction the corridor in July 2008.

“That’s how the fascinating journey of building the East-West corridor began. This line connects Howrah and Sealdah railway stations, two of the busiest stations in the world, and passes through under Hooghly river, the first such river crossing in the country,” said Kausik Mitra, Metro Railways’ Chief Public Relation Officer.

He further said that the underwater tunnel will connect the two centuries old historical West Bengal cities of Howrah and Kolkata under Hooghly river.

The Indian Railways, under which the Metro Railways functions, said that the Howrah Maidan to Esplanade stretch is built at a cost of Rs 4,138 crore and it will have India’s deepest metro station at Howrah.

(With PTI inputs)