KOLKATA: The East-West Metro authorities may start the Esplanade-Howrah Maidan section by the year end, but they are not in a position to link up the "problem" segment between Sealdah and Esplanade stations this year, said Hari Nath Jaiswal, MD, Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation (KMRC), at a media conference on Monday.
"We are trying to run a truncated service from Esplanade to Howrah Maidan by the end of this year. But we cannot link up the Sealdah-Esplanade section. We are in the process of overcoming the technical challenges in this section and announce a timeline to cross the trouble zone - Nirmal Chunder Street where the twin tunnels are to be linked with the ventilation shaft at Subodh Mullick Square - in the next three or four months.
The ground freezing technology for strengthening is being explored, so we can do the job in least possible time," said Jaiswal who is also the principal chief engineer, Metro Railway that runs the city's rapid transit network.
The assistant general manager, Metro Railway, started helming the special purpose vehicle implementing the East-West Metro corridor from February 18. Last week, he was supervising one of the most critical parts of the construction - casting of the base slab to join East-West Metro's westbound tunnel below Bowbazar's Durga Pituri Lane.
The East-West Metro's Howrah-bound tunnel is incomplete because of the repeated incidents of subsidence in the Bowbazar cave-in zone. So, trains between Phoolbagan and Sealdah are run through the eastward or Sector V-bound tunnel.
On May 11, last year, the project's second subsidence in three years had occurred while the last 9m of base slab casting was on.
"This was a major stepping stone for the project. We are now proceeding for train trials between Esplanade and Howrah. Two rakes will be taken from Salt Lake depot towards Esplanade. There are gaps along the eastbound tunnel for the cross passages we had planned. Temporary tracks are being laid to fill in these gaps," Jaiswal said.
He said two rakes will be deployed for trials that will start next month. "The trials to check the signals and other features of the 4.8km section will go on for six to seven months," he said.
Repeated delays in the East-West Metro project - which now runs 9.3km from Sector V to Sealdah and is stuck at the 2.5km section from Sealdah to Esplanade, even as the other side of Esplanade till Howrah Maidan has been ready - have revised the cost from Rs 8,576 crore to Rs 10,442 crore, Jaiswal said.
After the third subsidence in Bowbazar's Madan Dutta Lane, in October, last year, KMRC has decided to do away with three of the eight cross passages linking the two tunnels. These three were planned in the areas having the same tricky soil that might cause fresh subsidence, Jaiswal said. "Instead of the first three cross passages from Sealdah, we will build an evacuation shaft at Bowbazar," he said.
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