Another feather has been added in the crown of Kolkata Metro as Shri Narendra Modi, Hon’ble Prime Minister of India has inaugurated much awaited Howrah Maidan to Esplanade Stretch (4.8 km) of East-West Metro today from the newly constructed Esplanade Metro station of this Corridor.
Prime Minister also inaugurated Kavi Subhash – Hemanta Mukhopadhyay Stretch (5.4 km) of Orange Line and extended Taratala – Majerhat Stretch (1.25 km) of Purple Line. With these inaugurations, the traffic scenario of Kolkata and Howrah is going to be changed radically.
Prime Minister Modi waved to the waiting crowd waiting patiently outside as well as inside of new Esplanade station this morning before the inauguration. P Uday Kumar Reddy, General Manager, Metro Railway explained him East-West Metro Project with the help of a 3-D Model. Prime Minister expressed his happiness seeing this engineering marvel and praised all Metro officers, staff as well as the engineers and labourers who have toiled hard to realise the dream of running Metro services under a mighty river like Hooghly for the first time in the country which is going to make public transport first, hassle-free as well as environment-friendly.
After the inauguration, Modi flagged off the first Metro services on these three routes. He also travelled in a Metro from Esplanade to Howrah Maidan and back. During this Metro journey, he sat beside the school children, labourers and engineers associated with these projects and interacted with them. He enquired them about their expectations from Kolkata Metro and also about their feelings while travelling under river Hooghly for the first time. Students thanked the Prime Minister for presenting such a dream project to the people of Kolkata and suburban areas.
It is to be noted that a total of 11.45 kms has been added with Kolkata Metro network today at a cost of Rs. 6925 crores. These projects will help people of far-flung areas of South 24 Parganas, Howrah, Hooghly Midnapur to travel in and around Kolkata without any traffic snarl and at a faster pace.
Apart from this, Prime Minister also inaugurated several Metro projects of Agra, Puna, Kochi and a part of Delhi – Meerut RRTS Section. Shri Modi also flagged off the first metro services on these routes.
Kausik Mitra,Chief Public Relations Officer,Metro Railway stated this in a release.