Prime Minister Narendra Modi traveled in India’s first underwater metro in Kolkata on Wednesday, accompanied by school students and metro staffers. He inaugurated and laid the foundation stone for several development projects worth Rs 15,400 crore. Among these, he flagged off a metro train between Howrah Maidan and Esplanade in Kolkata’s East-West corridor, marking the country’s first under-river tunnel transportation.
Additionally, he inaugurated the Kavi Subhash-Hemanta Mukhopadhyay section of the New Garia – Airport Metro and the Taratala-Majerhat Metro section of the Joka-Esplanade Metro. The metro tunnel between Howrah Maidan and Esplanade, spanning 4.8 km, includes a 1.2 km stretch positioned 30 meters below the Hooghly river.
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After flagging off the metro train, the prime minister rode the underwater metro with school students, interacting with them and metro staff during the journey. Amidst chants of “Modi, Modi ” and “Jai Shri Ram”, he greeted people at a station after the metro ride, with the electrifying energy filling the entire station. This project not only marks the country’s first transportation tunnel under any major river but also makes the Howrah metro station the deepest in India.
The tunnel part of the East-West Metro Corridor project, starts from Sector V in Salt Lake and ends at Sealdah. It will be extended to the Howrah Maidan station, covering a total distance of 16.6 km, with 10.8 km underground. The East-West corridor, identified in Kolkata city’s master plan in 1971, began construction following the success of Kolkata and Delhi Metro networks.
This line connects Howrah and Sealdah railway stations, passing under the Hooghly river, marking the country’s first such river crossing. The underwater tunnel connects the historical West Bengal cities of Howrah and Kolkata under the Hooghly river. The Howrah Maidan to Esplanade stretch, built at a cost of Rs 4,138 crore, will house India’s deepest metro station at Howrah, operated by Metro Railways under the Indian Railways.
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