Kolkata metro to extend operations on New Garia-airport corridor

Construction work in different Kolkata Metro stations along the New Garia-airport corridor is going on in full swing as trains along that stretch will run up to Beleghata soon, a spokesperson said on Monday.

While train services along the 5.40 km stretch from New Garia (Kavi Subhash) to Ruby More (Hemanta Mukhopadhyay) stations have already become functional, another 4.39 km stretch extending up to Beleghata has got the clearance after careful evaluation of all safety parameters required for commissioning.

“The commercial services on this extended stretch will start very soon,” he said.

The service between Kavi Subhash and Hemanta Mukhopadhyay stations was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in March.

The rest of the work on the entire corridor, the Orange Line, which is 28.90 km long, is going on smoothly, he said.

To decongest traffic and make commuting from the New Town and Rajarhat townships to other parts of Kolkata easier, significant progress has also been made in recent times along the same stretch of the line between New Town and Airport corridor, the spokesperson said.

Ninety per cent of the civil engineering work on the stretch from the IT hub to City Centre-II, also a part of the Orange line, is also complete with electrical, signal and telecommunications works now in progress, he said.

There will be 10 stations along this stretch, which have been built by blending the art and culture of the area with modern technology, the spokesperson said.

All these stations will have state-of-the-art passenger amenities such as escalators, lifts, staircases, drinking water facilities, toilets, modern platforms, automatic smart card recharge machines (ASCRM) for self-ticketing facilities, public address system, digital display boards, emergency lighting facilities for the convenience of passengers, and tactile floor indicators for the blind, he added.

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