PM Narendra Modi inaugurates India’s 1st underwater metro connecting Kolkata-Howrah

The 4.8 km stretch of East-West metro from Howrah Maidan to Esplanade has been built at a cost of ₹4,965 crore. It will also have the deepest metro station in India at Howrah – 30 metres

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday inaugurated India’s first underwater metro route connecting Kolkata and Howrah in West Bengal along with other connectivity projects across the country worth ₹15,400 crore.

The under-river section of the tunnel is 520 metres long, and a train will take around 45 seconds to cross it. (Metro Railway Kolkata | Official X account)

The 4.8 km stretch of East-West metro from Howrah Maidan to Esplanade has been built at a cost of ₹4,965 crore. It will also have the deepest metro station in India at Howrah – 30 metres.

“E-W metro corridor has the distinction of the very first under river transportation tunnel in India below the River Hooghly, being 520m long and 13 m below the river bed and one of the deepest metro stations at Howrah, which is 30 m deep below the ground,” said the statement released by the Kolkata Metro.

PM Modi arrived in Kolkata on Tuesday evening on his second visit to the state this month in the run-up to the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, the date of which is yet to be announced by the Election Commission of India (ECI).

Later in the day, PM Modi will address a BJP rally at Barasat in North 24 Parganas district.

On March 1, PM Modi came to Bengal on a two-day visit during which he addressed two Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) rallies at Arambagh in Hooghly district and Krishnanagar in Nadia district.

The prime minister also inaugurated and laid the foundation stone of multiple connectivity projects across India from the same occasion.

These include a 5.4km new metro corridor from Kavi Subhash to Hemanta Mukhopadhyay in east Kolkata, a 1.2km extension of the Purple Line metro up to Majerhat, Pune Metro from Ruby Hall Clinic to Ramwadi stretch, Kochi Metro Rail Phase I Extension project (Phase IB) from SN Junction Metro station to Tripunithura Metro station, Agra Metro’s stretch from Taj East Gate to Mankameshwar and Duhai-Modinagar (North) section of Delhi-Meerut RRTS Corridor.

He also laid the foundation stone of extension of Pune Metro Rail project phase 1 between Pimpri Chinchwad Metro-Nigdi.

A senior official of Kolkata Metro said that the entire E-W metro corridor between Howrah Maidan to Salt Lake Sector V is expected to be operational soon. This will connect Sealdah and Howrah stations, the two busiest railway stations in India.

“The interior of the tunnels has been specially illuminated with blue lights in a bid to give passengers an impression of an underwater world. At least 40 figures of illuminated fishes have been set up on the interior walls. Plans are also afoot to give some special sound effects in this under-water section,” said an official.

Kolkata Metro is the first metro system in India which became operational on October 24, 1984.