India's first under-water coaches to be tested in Kolkata metro on Sunday

Kolkata is set to mark a historic milestone in the country's transportation sector as India's first under-river metro trains will conduct trials on Sunday, April 10th. Two six-coach trains have been prepared for the trial run, which will cover a distance of 14.5 km from Salt Lake Depot to Howrah Maidan, passing through a 520-meter tunnel under the Hooghly River.

The East-West Metro Corridor, also known as the Green Line, connects East Kolkata's Sector V with Howrah Maidan across the river via Sealdah and Esplanade. The construction of the downstream section has been completed for about a year, but the Sealdah-Esplanade section has been significantly delayed due to three major falls since August 2019.

However, the Kolkata Metro Railway officials are confident that the two trains for Sunday's trial run can be taken from Salt Lake depot to Howrah Maidan through the eastbound tunnel between Sealdah and Esplanade as the westbound tunnel has witnessed repeated dips and is still incomplete. The section that authorities have decided to start running without waiting for the completion of the Sealdah-Esplanade section is the 4.8 km stretch between Esplanade and Howrah Maidan.

If the trial run is successful, the date of commencement of commercial operations on the Esplanade-Howrah Maidan section would depend on the nod of the Railway Safety Commissioner. Kolkata Metro Railway Corporation (KMRC) general manager HN Jaiswal had earlier said that they plan to run a shortened service between the two stations by the end of the year.

The milestone achievement will be another feather in Kolkata's cap, which was the first Indian city to get a metro in October 1984, some 18 years before Delhi got its first metro line in December 2002. After crossing the river, the trains will pass through Howrah station, the deepest metro station in the country at a depth of 33 meters underground. The successful trial run of India's first under-river metro trains will open a new chapter in the country's transportation sector and pave the way for more such ambitious projects in the future.