Kolkata Metro update

On August 22, when the first south-bound Metro chugs out of Tollygunge station for Garia Bazar, it will signal the beginning of a transformation that the city’s southern suburbs have long been waiting for. A quick and easy link with the city proper will almost invariably elevate the suburbs to the status of downtown. If the few swank showrooms, the occasional upmarket restaurant and rising property price set the ball rolling five years ago, the Metro extension now promises to complete the process of integration that didn’t seem likely till even the Nineties. Life will change for tens of thousands across Naktala, Bansdroni, Netaji Nagar, Chanditala, Putiary, Garia and beyond from Saturday. They will no longer have to stand in queue for autorickshaws twice a day or travel all the way to Tollygunge Metro station — a journey that has been getting increasingly tiresome due to an overcrowded NSC Bose Road. With the Metro coming to their doorstep, reaching the nearest station will now be a short walk away. The area has been fast shedding its outskirts look. Multi-storeys have mushroomed and big brands have opened showrooms. Now, you have a Spencer’s at Netaji Nagar, a Nokia showroom at Azadgarh and a Habib’s beauty salon at Ashoknagar — brands that rarely looked beyond Ballygunge. Shabby one-storey houses and cubbyhole shops, typical of the refugee colonies that came up in the Fifties, are fast disappearing. The new look has led to a demographic change. Families have migrated from more expensive areas to Bansdroni, Naktala, Garia, Panchanantala, Narendrapur and even Brahmapur. These far-flung places will now have Metro access that makes life easier for them. The Metro-effect will benefit areas south of the Tolly’s Nullah along which the track runs. These have remained in the shadows — congested, with bad roads and poor civic facilities. The change is already being felt at the grassroots level. It has translated into more business for shop-owners. Those around the new stations at Kudghat and Bansdroni have seen a 20% rise in business, according to locals.