East West Metro Tunnel

East West Metro Tunnel
East West Metro Tunnel are blue this map
Overview
Other name(s) Ganga River Tunnel
Location Kolkata, India
Status Under Construction
Start Phoolbagan metro station, Kolkata
End Howrah Maidan metro station , Howrah
Operation
Owner Kolkata Metro
Operator Kolkata Metro
Traffic Kolkata Metro
Technical
Length 11 kilometres (6.8 mi)
0.520 kilometres (0.323 mi) (Underneath Hoogly )

East West Metro Tunnel[1] is an under construction underwater river tunnel of Kolkata Metro in Kolkata, West Bengal. The river tunnel is construct underneath Hooghly river. Tunnel length is 11 kilometres (6.8 mi) and width is 5.5 metres (18 ft). A 520m stretch of the tracks will go through a tunnel under the Hooghly. The roof of the tunnel would be about 30 metres from the ground level. The tunnel will be completed in 2018.[2] The tunnel will be first underwater river tunnel in India [3][4] and South Asia . The tunnel used by East West Metro Line for metro rail service and constructed by Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation.[5]

Construction

The section between Sealdah and Mahakaran station was realigned due to inability of GoWB to provide land on the surface along the original route. Even on the new alignment a station planned at Wellington had to be dropped as GoWB was unable to provide the required land on the surface. Work at Howrah Maidan have started in March 2016. The section between Howrah Maidan and Esplanade station has been built by Afcons – Transtonnelstroy JV team, two tunnel boring machines from Herrenknecht are being used to dig the tunnel. This section passes through the river Hooghly for a distance of 520 meters. The section under the river is at a depth of 30 meters (roof to ground distance) whereas the average roof to ground distance is 17 meters. The Howrah station on the west side of the river will be at a depth of 30 meters. Tunnelling started from Howrah Maidan side. On 23rd May one of the TBM named Rachna completed the tunneling under the Hoogly river in 36 days. The other TBM named Prerna also completed the tunnelling work under the river on 21-June-2017. There were some concerns during tunnelling under Brabourne road as the tunnel would pass within 100 meters of heritage structures and there were also many old and dilapidated buildings in this section. KMRC received permission from Archaeological Survey of India in June 2017. Residents and shops in the old building were temporarily shifted and the buildings were reinforced before construction of tunnel. Construction of tunnel till Mahakaran station was completed in November 2017. For the Mahakaran-Esplanade section tunnelling of one of the tunnel have been completed on 23 March 2018 the other tunnel have also been completed by April. In this sections also shops and residents of the buildings have been shifted in phased manner before tunnelling. The Esplanade - Sealdah section will be executed by ITD-ITD Cementation JV and was scheduled to start in May 2018.

Work is being done at Howrah Maidan Station.

5490 meters of tunnel have been constructed between Subhash Sarovar and Sealdah. This section was constructed by ITD-ITD Cementation JV. All the cross passes between the two tunnels have also been completed. Track laying is being carried out in this section.

Timelines

  • 2009: Contract for building the underground section from Subhash Sarabor to Central Station awarded to ITD-ITD Cementation JV.
  • 2009: Physical Construction of EW corridor starts.
  • 2010: Contract for building the underground section from Central to Howrah Maidan awarded to Afcons.
  • 2012: Realignment proposed to avoid shifting of 80 families from Bowbazar and hawkers from Brabourne Road.
  • 2015: Realignment approved by Railways and JICA in between Sealdah to Howrah station.
  • 2015: Subodh Mullick Square station, a key stop in the revised blueprint, done away with to avoid eviction of hawkers.
  • 2017-March: Afcons nicknames the tunnel boring machine as Prerna and Rachna inspired from the names of daughter of their employee.
  • 2017-May 23: First TBM completes tunneling the East bound tunnel under the Hoogly river.
  • 2017-June 21: Second TBM completes tunneling the West bound tunnel under the river Hoogly.
  • 2017-June: Permission received from Archaeological Survey of India for construction of tunnel within 100 meters of three heritage buildings.
  • 2017-July: Tram depot at Esplanade shifted to facilitate construction of Metro Station.
  • 2017-July: People from 11 buildings in Brebourne Road evacuated in phased manner when the TBM's passes below these old buildings.
  • 2017-August: Mini-bus stand at Mahakaran shifted to facilitate the construction of underground station.
  • 2017-December: Tunnelling between Mahakaran station and Esplanade station on going.
  • 2018-March 23: First TBM named Prerna reaches Esplanade station completing the section from Howrah Maidan to Esplanade. This tunnel will be used by Howrah bound tunnel.
  • 2018-Apr 5: Second TBM completes boring of second tunnel between Howrah Maidan and Esplanade station.

References

  1. ↑ "Underwater metro tunnel work likely to begin next month".
  2. ↑ "Kolkata Metro's new line may open in 2018". The Hindu Business.
  3. ↑ "Indias first underwater tunnel for howrah kolkata metro almost finishes".
  4. ↑ "Kolkata to get indias first underwater metro".
  5. ↑ "Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation Ltd". kmrc.in.

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