The Kolkata Metro or Calcutta Metro (Bengali: কলকাতা মেট্রো) is a metro system serving the city of Kolkata and the districts of South 24 Parganas and North 24 Parganas in Indian state of West Bengal. The network consists of one operational line (Line 1) and one under construction (Line 2), with four further lines in various stages of planning. It was the first such form of transportation in India, opening commercial services in 1984. It is the 17th zone of the Indian Railways. While considered revolutionary when opened, the system has been starved of investment in the decades since and has been described by the Business Standard as "an exercise in antiquity", with no significant technology upgrades since the 1970s.[3]
After independence, the transport problem of Kolkata drew the attention of the city planners, the state government and also the government of India. It was soon realized that something had to be done and done fast to cope up with the situation. It was Dr. B.C. Roy, the then Chief Minister of West Bengal, who for the first time conceived the idea in 1949 of building an Underground Railway for Kolkata to solve the problems to some extent. A survey was done by a team of French experts but nothing concrete came out. Efforts to solve the problem by augmenting the existing fleet of public transport vehicles barely touched the fringes as roads account for only 4.2% of the surface area in Calcutta, compared to 25% inDelhi and even 30% in other cities. With a view to finding out an alternative solution to alleviate the suffering of the Kolkatans, the Metropolitan Transport Project (Rlys) was set up in 1969. The MTP (Rlys), with help of Soviet specialists (Lenmetroproekt), prepared a master plan of five rapid-transit lines for the city of Kolkata, totalling a route length of 97.5 km in 1971. But only 3 were selected for construction. These were:
- Dum Dum - Tollygunge
- Salt Lake City - Ramrajatala (truncated till Howrah Maidan)
- Dakshineshwar - Thakurpukur (route changed to Joka - BBD Bagh)
Of these, the highest priority was given to the busy north-south axis between Dum Dum and Tollygunge over a length of 16.45 km, and the work on this project was sanctioned on 1 June 1972. The foundation stone of the project was laid by Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister of India, on 29 December 1972 and the construction work started in 1973-74. Since the commencement of construction, the project had to contend with several problems such as non-availability of sufficient funds till 1977-78, shifting of underground utilities, court injunctions, irregular supply of vital materials and others. But overcoming innumerable hurdles and crossing all barriers of disbelief, Calcutta Metro, India's first and Asia's fifth, became a reality on OCTOBER 24, 1984 with the commissioning of partial commercial service covering a distance of 3.40 km with five stations between Esplanadeand Bhowanipur. This was quickly followed by commuter services on another 2.15 km stretch in the north between Dum Dum and Belgachhia on NOVEMBER 12, 1984. The commuter service was extended up to Tollygunge on APRIL 29, 1986 covering a further distance of 4.24 km making the service available over an overall distance of 9.79 km and covering 11 stations. However, the services on the north section were suspended w.e.f. 26.10.92 as this isolated small section was not attractive to commuters. After a gap of over eight years, the 1.62 km Belgachhia-Shyambazaarsection, along with Dum Dum-Belgachhia stretch, was opened on AUGUST 13,1994. Another 0.71 km stretch from Esplanade to Chandni Chowkwas commissioned shortly thereafter, on OCTOBER 2, 1994. The Shyambazaar-Shobhabazar-Girish Park (1.93 km) and Chandni Chowk-Central(0.60 km) sections were opened on FEBRUARY 19, 1995. Services on the entire stretch of Metro were introduced from September 27, 1995 by bridging the vital gap of 1.80 km in the middle. [4]
In the later stage, the extension of Line 1 to an elevated corridor from Tollygunge to New Garia was constructed & opened in 2 phases. Mahanayak Uttam Kumar to Kavi Nazrul in 2009 & Kavi Nazrul to Kavi Subhash in 2010. The latest extension constructed is the 2.59 km elevated corridor from Dum Dum to Noapara on 10 July 2013.
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