Kolkata Metro- A New Milestone Of Mobility In India

“The city of Joy”, Kolkata, offers an array of interesting places to the inquisitive knower! Apart from all of its historical containers, the most out of the box is the “KOLKATA METRO RAILWAY”. From the silver screen of Bollywood to the lovers point, Kolkata metro always portray its shine in the history of Kolkata. You get a glimpse when you remember about the scene of ‘Kahaani’ starred by Vidya Balan at Rabindra Sarobar metro station. This is tricky but on the summer days inside the air conditioned rakes are like a sudden shower, the ultimate comfort for all the passengers in the scorching heat. Kolkata’s Metro is India’s first underground metro railway with mass rapid system serving the City of of Kolkata and the districts of south 24 Parganas and north 24 Parganas. In past there was only one metro railroad in Kolkata, but at present there is an another metro railroad developing in Kolkata called East West Metro Corridor worked by Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation(KMRC) which is a Govt. of India Enterprise. The East-West Metro Route is arranged from Salt Lake Sector-V to Howrah Maidan(Line 2). The Noapara-Kavi Subhash(Line 1) and other proposed Lines (Except Line 2) are worked by Metro Railway, Kolkata and the East-West Corridor (Line 2) is worked by Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation (KMRC). It has a daily number of passengers of around 6 lakhs, it is very soothing for us because of it saves our passerby times and many more also. The well maintained and air conditioned stations are always a better place for the tired heads. Kolkata’s metro is always boastful for the kolkatans and it has undoubtedly left no place to say that the many of the people of other countries talk about our Kolkata for this AC or NON AC coach..

 

History of Kolkata’s metro:

After independence in 1947, the vehicle issue of Kolkata drew the attention of city organizers, the government of India. Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy, the chief minister of west Bengal, in 1949 initially considered the thought of building and underground railway for Kolkata in attempt to take care of the issues. With a perspective to discovering elective answers to reduce the agony of Calcuttans, the metropolitan transport project was set up in 1969. With the help of Soviet authorities and East German engineers, he arranged a good strategy to give the five fast travel metro lines in the city of Kolkata, totaling a course length of 97.5 km in 1971. However only three were selected for construction..These are:

·         Dumdum – Tollygunge

·         Salt lake city – Ramrajatala : presently permitted till Howrah Maidan, and proposed to be extended to Santragachi Bus Terminus.

·         Dakshineshwar – Thakurpukur: the route is changed from Joka to BBD Bagh and Noapara to Dakshineshwar..

On 1^stjune 1972, the mass rapid transit system project was sectioned. In the same year the establishment stone of the project was inaugurated on 29^thdecember by Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister of India and the construction was started in 1973-1974. In the beginning of Kolkata Metro, the arrangements, thought preparation, and political facilitation of entire task was conducted by the Union Railway Minister A.B.A Ghani Khan Choudhury of West Bengal. From the beginning of development, the project had faced few issues including lack of assests,  moving of underground utilities, court orders and  improper supply of key materials.

In 1984 on 24^th October, Metro railway Kolkata, India’s first metro was commissioned. Commercial services started from Esplanade to Bhawanipur (now NetajiBhavan) for a distance of 3.4 kms. The first metro was driven by Mr.Tapankumar Nath and Sanjay Sil.

In 1984 on 12^th November, the administration was immediately trailed by worker administrations on another 2.15 km stretch in the north between Dumdum and Belgachhia.

In 1986 on 29^th April, the commuter service was extended to  Tollygunge covering a further distance of 4.24 km with the service available over a distance of 9.79 km and covering eleven stations.

In 1994 on 13^th august, after a gap of more than eight years, the 1.62 km Belgachhia – Shyambazar section along with the Dumdum – Belgachhia line was propagated.

In 1994 on 2^ndoct another 0.71 km extend from Esplanade to Chandnichowk was commissioned.

In 1995 on 19^th October, the Shyambazar- Shobhabazar( now, Shobabazar Sutanuti) - Girishpark and Chandni Chowk sections were opened.

In 1995 on 27th September, the total length of 16.45 kms from Dumdum to Tollygunge( Now Mahanayak Utaam Kumar) between 17 stations started operating..

In the final stage the extension of line 1 which is denoted as Tollygunge-dumdum route was constructed from Tollygunge, now named as Mahanayak Uttam Kumar to New Garia(Kabi Subhas)  opened in two phases. In 2009 on 22^nd august part of the new stations of 5.89 kms from Mahanayak Uttam Kumar to Kavi Nazrul was commissioned. In 2010 on 27^th October the remaining stretch of the new section to the south, 1.58 kms from Kavi Nazrul to Kavi Subhash was commissioned. With this continuation in the 2010 the Railway ministry announced plans for the construction of new metro lines, which are as follows:

Ø  Saltlake city – Howrah Maidan

Ø  Joka - BBD Bagh

Ø  Noapara – Barasat via airport

Ø  Noapara – Dakshineswar

Ø  New Garia – Airport

In 2013 on 10^thjuly a new section from dumdum to Noapara was commissioned. This line 1, also known as North South Metro of Kolkata is a rapid transit system serving Kolkata, South 24 Parganas and North 24 Parganas, which covers the distance of 27.39 kms from Kavi Subhas to Noapara section. Out of 24 stations, 2 stations are ground surfaced, 15 are under grounded and 7 are elevated..Along with the glorious history of the City of Joy, Kolkata, the ten stations are named after famous personalities from Bengal. These stations are – Girish Park (after theatre personality Girish Ghosh), Jatin Das Park (after freedom fighter Jatin Das), Kavi Subhash, Kavi Nazrul (after the poet Kazi Nazrul Islam), Mahanayak Uttam Kumar (after Bengali star actor Uttam Kumar), Mahatma Gandhi Road (after Mahatma Gandhi), Masterda Surya Sen (after freedom-fighter Surya Sen), Netaji Bhavan (after Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose), Shahid Khudiram (after freedom-fighter Khudiram Bose).  On 29th December, 2010 Metro Railway, Kolkata turned into the seventeenth zone of the Indian Railways, worked by the Ministry of Railways. On the other hand Kolkata metro provides many suitable facilities to the daily passengers. The Kolkata metro gives exceptional seats in each compartment which are reserved for ladies and seniors citizens. Recently the possibility of receiving mobile signals in underground tunnels is improved.

The unique ticket system of Kolkata’s Metro has given us better facilities. From 1984-2011 after using the magnetic ticketing system for 27years, the Kolkata metro introduced RADIO FREQUENCY IDENTIFICATION (RFID) tokens CENTRE FOR RAILWAY INFORMATION SYSTEMS (CRIS) from 2011.The old attractive strip readers entryways are now replaced by new RFID readers.

In the wake of presenting RFID tokens, Kolkata metro presented a smart card service, introduced by Centre for Railway Information Systems.These smart cards are multi programmable and people can decide on the different multi ride plans. This system is spreading gradually because it takes less time and passengers can avoid the queue in the hurry. Moreover Kolkata’s metro provide us a robust security service. All the stations are outfitted with closed- circuit cameras, metal detectors and x-ray baggage scanners. But the life death face is always a black memory for Kolkata’s metro. Many passengers commit suicide. Kolkata metro has the lowest fare. Fare for a distance of 5 km is Rs 5, the lowest rate anywhere in the world. Travelling by metro in Kolkata is a good option for covering long distances due to high traffic congestion in Kolkata as its saves you’re a lot of time. This is so glad that the Kolkata Metro is well known and referred to as ‘India’s First Kolkata’s Pride’.