People of India and especially West Bengal, there is a good news for you! Now you can travel under water as the tunneling work under the Hooghly River, which is considered as the first Underwater project in the country has been completed. This will be going to provide Metro connectivity between Howrah and Kolkata.
This tunnel is a very crucial link for the 16.4 km-long mass rapid transport (MRT) project being constructed by the Kolkata Metro Railway Corporation (KMRC) at an estimated cost of around Rs 9,000 crore. Satish Kumar, the MD of KMRC said,
“India has joined a select band of nations. Another rare feat achieved by Kolkata after getting the first metro railway in the country in 1984. The KMRC team, including engineers from abroad, has completed the construction of India’s first underwater tunnel under the Hooghly river.”
He also gave the details of the construction of the tunnel, he said, tunnelling from the Howrah end started in the last week of April and reached the Kolkata end on June 20. There are two tunnels constructed for onward and return journeys. They have been bored 13 meters beneath the riverbed and 30 meters from the ground.
Kumar also said that “The operation of the East-West Metro Corridor in the first phase between Salt Lake and Phoolbagan in the city will start next year. The first rake, built by BEML, will arrive in December this year. Full operation, till Howrah Maidan, will probably start from 2020 and a total of 17 rakes will be deployed,”
The total length of this tunnel is 520 meters. So get ready Bengalis its time to travel underwater. Congratulations to the Indian government for its first underwater tunnel project.
