Kolkata Metro snippets

Mamata's pet project to spin a web of metro rail grids across Kolkata will take a bow when it meets the icon of the future. Two ambitious metro lines — one extending the existing metro line at Dum Dum till Barasat in the northern fringes and the other completing the loop by connecting the northern end with the southern tip at Garia Station via the eastern fringe of the city— will go down under when it reaches the airport that will sport the futuristic 80-ft high torch-shaped air traffic control tower by 2015. At a meeting held at the airport on Friday, metro railway agreed to tunnel through the airport section so that viaducts don’t act as a spoiler. The decision to go below the surface will also spare valuable land that Airports Authority of India (AAI) plans to commercialize. “If metro lines cut through the length of the airport, plans to develop shopping malls, hotels and restaurants in future will have to be buried. According to the new plan, the Dum Dum-Barasat line that will extend beyond the metro railway shed at Noapara, will go underground near the AAI colony on Jessore Road. The line will veer to the right, enter the airport premises through the underground tunnel and stop at Biman Bandar station. The Garia-Biman Bandar airport metro line will travel on viaducts along the EM Bypass. At Chingrihata, the line will turn right into Salt Lake Bypass along the canal and then run parallel to the Rajarhat Expressway to hit VIP Road. Immediately thereafter, it will burrow deep and turn right to reach the underground Biman Bandar station. Once the metro service commences, the overhead EMU service will be discontinued and viaducts dismantled. “RITES has done the survey. Tunneling will cost an additional Rs 200 crore. The proposal is being forwarded to the railway ministry for approval,” a metro official said. Emerging from the meeting, committee chairman and Union minister Saugata Roy said he did not perceive any hurdle. In her last budget as railway minister, Mamata has provisioned Rs 1,000 crore for the Dum Dum-Barasat line and Rs 1,600 crore for the Garia-Biman Bandar line. But with the portfolio now with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Trinamool Congress’ Mukul Roy only a joint minister of state, the sanction is not guaranteed.