East-West Metro’s truncated 4.8km Esplanade-Howrah Maidan section has missed December deadline and is seeing repeated safety checks.
The current one is being done immediately ahead of the final inspection by the chief commissioner of railway safety (CCRS), scheduled next week. The CRS team is supposed to submit a report whether the east-bound tunnel in the Bowbazar area is ready for empty rake movement. Only then will the CCRS conduct his inspection to emboss the safety approval for starting East-West Metro’s under-river operations. However, a negative report from the current CRS team — against seamless transportation of empty rakes through the cave-in zone — may be forwarded to the PMO and defer the much-awaited launching of India’s first under-river Metro, sources said.
TOI in its Dec 19 report — ‘E-W’s Esplanade-Howrah section inspection suspended midway’ — wrote that the CRS team which was supposed to conduct a week-long inspection starting December 15 was peeved at the sorry state of the Sealdah-Esplanade section through which empty rakes are to be transported from Salt Lake maintenance depot…
This was the first of the CRS team’s 19 observations to which KMRC must comply with to get safety regulator’s nod. The CRS was also unhappy about the unfinished Esplanade station which has been doubling up as a shaft to access the under-construction 2.5km stretch between Esplanade and Sealdah. East-West Metro now runs 9.2 km from Sector V to Sealdah. Implementing agency Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation (KMRC) is skipping the Esplanade-Sealdah stretch for now and readying the Esplanade-Howrah Maidan stretch via the Hooghly.
Over the last one month, KMRC retrofitted half-rings made of a unique type of steel to fill the gaps in the east-bound tunnel. Around 40 m of track-laying was done on the half circular rings made of Sailma steel, famous for high-load bearing applications. TOI earlier reported that four rakes were transported through cave-in zone — from Esplanade to Salt Lake depot. They were powered by recently laid third rail system.
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