India’s first Underwater Metro to be launched by March 2022

The country’s first underwater metro project, the East-West project of the Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation, passing through Kolkata’s iconic Hooghly river is set to be launched by March 2022.

Connecting the twin cities Kolkata and Howrah, the 16.6 km route with six stations on the way is having its terminal stations at Salt Lake sector V and the Howrah Maidan and it is expected to carry 9 lakh, people, daily on this new line and it will take less than a minute to cross the underwater tunnel of half a kilometer.

Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation Limited (KMRC), a joint venture company owned by the Government of India and Government of West Bengal on a fifty-fifty partnership basis is launching this project as Kolkata Metro Line 2. Rs. 41.6 billion was provided by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to fund nearly half of the project. The East-West Metro project is 74 percent owned by Union Railway Ministry of India and 26 percent by the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.

Month: Current Affairs - January, 2020