On Friday, 22 August, the Prime Minister of India flagged three new metros in Kolkata, including the much-awaited underwater metro line and the one connecting Netaji Subhash International Airport. The programme of the inauguration ceremony took place at the Jessore Road Metro Station.
During the inauguration, the Prime Minister, along with school kids, took a round trip to the Jai Hind Bimanbandar metro station. The Governor of West Bengal, Anand Mohan Bose, the state President of the BJP, Samik Bhattacharya, and Union Minister Sukanta Majumdar were the other signatories present at the event.
Officials remarked that the new lines will significantly ease congestion on the roads of Kolkata and help millions of people.
The three routes, including Orange, Green, and Yellow, have increased the metro connectivity in West Bengal by 13.61 kilometres. The Green line connects Esplanade and Sealdah, the much-awaited metro line connecting one of the most important places in West Bengal. This link will reduce the time between Howrah and Sealdah from 40 minutes to only 11 minutes.
The network connecting the airport, via Jai Hind Bimanbandar, will improve the connectivity to the airport. It will also reduce the time taken to reach the airport from one hour to just 30 minutes.
The third link connecting Hemanta Mukopadhyay to Beleghata will make connectivity to the IT hubs of the city easy. The first ever metro service in India began from West Bengal’s Kolkata in 1984, and now the state also hosts India’s first underwater metro.
