కోల్‌కతా మెట్రో రైల్వే
The Kolkata Metro or Calcutta Metro is a metro system serving the city of Kolkata and the districts of South 24 Parganas and North 24 Parganas in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is the first underground metro railway system in India. The network consists of one operational line (Line 1) and one under construction (Line 2), with four further lines in various stages of planning. It was the first such form of transport in India, opening for commercial services in 1984. It is the 17th zone of the Indian Railways system.
After Independence in 1947, the transport problem of Kolkata drew the attention of city planners, the state government and also the government of India. It was soon realized that something had to be done and quickly in order to cope with the situation. Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy, the then Chief Minister of West Bengal, first conceived in 1949, the idea of building an Underground Railway for Kolkata to try to solve the problems. A survey was done by a team of French experts, but nothing concrete came of this. Efforts to solve the problem by augmenting the existing fleet of public transport vehicles hardly helped, since roads account for only 4.2% of the surface area in Calcutta, compared with 25% in Delhi and even 30% in other cities. With a view to finding alternative solutions to alleviate the suffering of Calcuttans, the Metropolitan Transport Project (Rlys) was set up in 1969. The MTP (Rlys), with help of Soviet specialists (Lenmetroproekt) and East German engineers, prepared a master plan to provide five rapid-transit (metro) lines for the city of Kolkata, totalling a route length of 97.5 km in 1971. However, only three were selected for construction. These were:
Of these, the highest priority was given to the busy north-south axis between Dum Dum and Tollygunge over a length of 16.45 km, and the work on this project was sanctioned on 1 June 1972. The foundation stone of the project was laid by Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister of India, on 29 December 1972 and the construction work started in 1973-74. In those early days of Kolkata Metro, the planning, thought processing, and political facilitation of the whole project was borne almost single-handedly by the then Union Railway Minister from West Bengal - A. B. A. Ghani Khan Choudhury - often against (and to the chagrin of) the prevailing socio-political stance of his contemporaries in the West Bengal government. From the start of construction, the project had to contend with several problems including insufficient funds (until 1977-78), a shifting of underground utilities, court injunctions, and an irregular supply of vital materials. Despite the difficulties faced, services began on October 24, 1984, with the commissioning of a partial commercial service covering a distance of 3.40 km with five stations served in between Esplanade and Bhowanipur. The first metro was driven by Tapan Kumar Nath and Sanjoy Sil. The service was quickly followed by commuter services on another 2.15 km stretch in the north between Dum Dum and Belgachhia on November 12, 1984. The commuter service was extended up to Tollygunge on April 29, 1986 covering a further distance of 4.24 km making the service available over a distance of 9.79 km and covering 11 stations. However, the services on the north section were suspended with effect from October 26, 1992, as this isolated small section was little used. After a gap of more than eight years, the 1.62 km Belgachhia-Shyambazaar section, along with the Dum Dum-Belgachhia stretch, was opened on August 13, 1994. Another 0.71 km stretch from Esplanade to Chandni Chowk was commissioned shortly afterwards, on October 2, 1994. The Shyambazaar-Shobhabazar-Girish Park (1.93 km) and Chandni Chowk-Central (0.60 km) sections were opened on February 19, 1995. Services on the entire stretch of the Metro were introduced from September 27, 1995 by bridging the vital gap of 1.80 km in the middle.
In the final stage, the extension of Line 1 to an elevated corridor from Tollygunge to New Garia was constructed and opened in two phases, Mahanayak Uttam Kumar to Kavi Nazrul in 2009 and Kavi Nazrul to Kavi Subhash in 2010. The latest extension constructed was the 2.59 km elevated corridor from Dum Dum to Noapara on 10 July 2013.
The North-South metro construction required several new technologies in the fields of civil, electrical, signaling and telecommunications engineering. Indian engineers backed by their own experience and helped by their studies abroad, used the following advanced technologies for the first time in India:All the new lines were constructed by the new state-of-art technologies. Most of the new links are elevated with only a few being underground. Unlike the North-South Corridor which used the cut-and-cover method for the whole underground route, the tunnels of the new lines were constructed using a tunnel-boring machine (TBM).
In 2010, the Railway Ministry announced plans for the construction of five new metro lines and an extension of the existing North-South corridor. These new projects are:
Kolkata Metro Railway - Official Site - for extension detailsLine 1 has a total length of serving 24 stations of which 15 are underground. It has a combination of elevated, ground-level and underground lines and uses five and a half feet (1676 milimetres) of Indian gauge, a broad gauge rolling stock. It was the first underground railway to be built in India, with the first trains running in October 1984, and the full stretch that had been initially planned was completed and operational by February 1995. On 28 December 2010, it became the 17th zone of the Indian Railways. The New Delhi Metro, which opened in 2002, is the second such urban metro rail network in India. It had benefitted from the expertise gained during the Kolkata metro construction. In being the country’s first metro and constructed as a completely indigenous process, the Kolkata Metro was more of a trial-and-error affair, in contrast to the Delhi Metro, which has also seen the involvement of numerous international consultants. As a result, it took nearly 23 years to completely construct a 17 km underground railway.
East-West Metro, a 48745.8 rupees () (US$779.9) project to connect Kolkata with Howrah by an underwater metro line was given the go-ahead by the central government. The length will be 14.67 km (8.9 km underground and 5.77 km elevated). This line will be constructed and maintained by a separate body named Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation (KMRC). However, in January 2011 KMRC and the entire East West (EW) metro corridor, was taken over by the Ministry of Railways from the Ministry of Urban development and the state government of West Bengal. Now the EW Metro's majority stake is with the Indian Railways and the remainder is as a loan from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation.
The West Bengal government had earlier appointed Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Limited to conduct a feasibility study of the project, after which the government had to then put the project on hold due to funding issues. The underwater metro plan was thought of when the first metro service was inaugurated in Kolkata in 1984 by former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. The route is to cover 12 stations and go under the river through a tunnel. The foundation stone was laid on 22 February 2009.
The construction of line 2 started in March 2009. The East-West Metro will run from Salt Lake Sector 5 (in the east) to Howrah Maidan (in the west). Trains will be air conditioned, and underground stations will be equipped with platform screen doors. It will run on standard () gauge, unlike line 1, which runs on broad () gauge.
Between Mahakaran and Howrah Station, the metro will run under the Hooghly River — the first underwater metro in India. The line will be elevated between Salt Lake Sector 5 and Yuva Bharati Krirangan, and the remaining stretch will be underground. Transfer stations will be located at Sealdah and Howrah.
The first phase is planned to be operational in September 2015.
A 16.72 km long metro line from Joka (in extreme South Kolkata) and BBD Bagh (in central Kolkata) is under construction. It is being built by RVNL and the tender has gone to Simplex Infrastructures.
Proposed stations on this route:The proposed Esplanade station will not to be the same as that of Line 1 (North-South Metro) but a completely different station. Park Street will serve as an interchange between Line 3 and Line 1.
The project to build an 18.5 km line from Noapara to Barasat via Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport is sanctioned and construction work has commenced.
The proposed stations on this route are
The Baranagar-Barrackpore Metro (Line 5) (12.40 km) was meant to enable a quicker commute from the northern suburbs to South Kolkata. As of February 2015, however, this project was unlikely to be executed as metro construction would affect the water pipelines along Barrackpore Trunk Road.
Eleven metro stations were planned on this route. The stations are -
A connection between New Garia and the Airport (29.1 km) via E M Bypass, Saltlake and Rajarhat has started; it will help to reduce travel time between the southern fringes of Kolkata to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport. The work on this New Garia-Airport line was inaugurated by Mamata Banerjee on 7 February 2011 with a project deadline of six years.
The link between Kavi Subhas (New Garia) and the airport, to be set up at a cost of Rs4 billion, will have 24 stations with the terminal Airport station being an underground one.
The stations, as declared of now, will be named after eminent personalities.The rolling stock of Kolkata Metro Line 1 uses Indian gauge a broad gauge track which is manufactured by ICF, Chennai, and the electrical components are manufactured by NGEF, Bangalore. Initially, the rolling stock fleet was composed of 4-car rakes. Over the years there has been considerable expansion to the network, both underground and on elevated sections. With the increase in traffic, 8-car rake formation has become a standard for the Kolkata Metro. Presently there are 18 Non AC rakes and 13 AC rakes. Out of the 18 Non AC rakes, 11 will be phased out gradually since they have outlived their normal life of 25 years. The remaining 7 rakes are still in good condition so they will be refurbished and put into service in a phase manner. Until now, three types of trains have been used by Kolkata metro; these are - *BHEL Rake(1000 Series): 9 Rakes were manufactured by ICF, Chennai and were passed into service in the first phase when the metro initially ran from Esplanade to Bhawanipur (now Netaji Bhavan). These trains were dark green in colour and had a yellow stripe at the bottom. Later the colour was changed to white with a dark blue stripe. Presently they are yellow with a wide brown band at the bottom.The rakes are usually numbered from B1 to B9 but two of these have been condemned.Kolkata metro has 24 stations, 15 of which are underground, 7 are elevated and 2 stations are at grade. All the underground stations have island platforms except Park Street which has side platforms. While all the elevated stations have side platforms, Noapara has island platforms and since it will be the hub station for Line 1 and Line 4 it has 4 platforms having a length of 182m. The standard length of platforms in Kolkata Metro is 170m. The metro stations of Gitanjali & Netaji have the shortest platforms of 163m. The average length between any two stations is 1.14 km. The shortest distance is 0.597 km between Central and Chandni Chowk, whereas the longest distance is 2.15 km between Dum Dum and Belgachhia. Since the electrification of Kolkata metro is of the 3rd Rail, 750 V DC, electricity substations were built in Jatin Das Park, Central, Shyambazaar. The type of tracks are ballast-less with M1A track fittings.
Kolkata metro trains operate on typical Indian Railways automatic signalling technology. A Route Relay Interlocking System has been provided at Mahanayak Uttam Kumar and Noapara carshed and are in operation to facilitate the prompt withdrawal and injection of rakes as well as performing shunting operations inside the carshed, required for maintenance purposes. Train Protection & Warning System(TPWS) is provided on the entire stretch of the Metro Railway. This system is designed to prevent collision caused by human (operator) error. Train Describer System and Auto Train Charting have also been provided to help the operartion control centre to monitor and plan train movement on a real time basis. The Metro operates between 0700 and 2145 hours, running every 10 minutes and every 5 minutes during peak hours on weekdays. Metro runs on Sundays between the hours of 1000 to 2145 hours. A number of 270 trains run during week days, 205 on Saturdays and 92 on Sundays.
The Kolkata Metro provides special seats in every compartment which are reserved for women and senior citizens. The Kolkata Metro has also recently introduced functionality to support mobile signals in underground tunnels. Metro stations are equipped with very large fans and few Metro rakes are air conditioned. The Kolkata Metro has introduced a smart card system.
After using the magnetic ticketing system for 27 years from 1984 to 2011, Kolkata Metro introduced radio-frequency identification (RFID) tokens from 2011. The old magnetic strip reader gates were replaced by new RFID readers.
After introducing RFID tokens, Kolkata metro introduced a Smart Card service. These smart cards are multi-programmable and commuters can opt for the various multi-ride schemes. To buy a new card a commuter needs to deposit 100, which will be refunded after the card is returned in good condition, before its expiry date. A commuter can recharge the smart card for the sums of 100, 200, 300, 500 or 1000 and receive 110% value on every recharge and the card is valid for a year. Kolkata metro also introduced smart card recharging machines, in Park Street station, on an experimental basis, where money could be credited onto the smart card by inserting 100 notes into the machine and placing the card in its slot.
Another type of Smart Card is the multi-ride card. These cards are bought on the basis of how many rides a commuter takes. The multi-ride smart cards are of 3 types. These were however withdrawn after the fare revision in November 2013. They were as follows:
The most popular among daily commuters is the general smart card
All the stations are equipped with closed-circuit cameras, metal detectors, and X-ray baggage scanners, making the metro the safest form of transport in Kolkata. The taking of photographs, eating, drinking and smoking are all prohibited on the metro premises.
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