The lack of cooperation from the state government is the main hurdle to faster Metro expansion in Calcutta, railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Monday.
“Money is never a constraint. We just need permission to do work,” Vaishnaw told reporters at a news conference on allocations for railway projects in the Union Budget 2026. He was responding to questions about Metro projects in Calcutta.
Vaishnaw has made similar allegations in the past, most recently in Parliament in December. During Monday’s briefing, he said Metro construction in Calcutta has been expedited under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, but the pace could have been even faster with the cooperation of the state government.
Orange Line
“The projects can move even faster. But the Bengal government is not giving permission (for traffic blocks) at Chingrighata despite a high court order. A bypass road has already been built at the spot. It has been close to one-and-a-half years, but the state government is yet to give a nod for the work to go ahead,” Vaishnaw said.
A 366-metre gap in the Metro viaduct at Chingrighata is the key missing link in the upcoming New Garia–airport Metro corridor, or the Orange Line, now functional between New Garia and Beleghata. The Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd (RVNL), the executing agency, requires traffic blocks from police to lift concrete segments and bridge the gap.
A senior Kolkata Police officer told this newspaper: “Traffic trials are already underway at Chingrighata to assess the impact of traffic blocks at one of the busiest intersections in Calcutta.”
A nearly 500-metre stretch of a two-lane road, built by RVNL as an alternative, was opened on January 21 as part of the trial. In December, a Calcutta High Court division bench, comprising Justices Sujoy Paul and Partha Sarathi Sen, ordered that work on concrete blocks must be completed by February 15.
The news conference was live-streamed at the Metro Railway headquarters in Chowringhee. Subhransu Sekhar Mishra, general manager of Metro Railway,
said the Orange Line was delayed for at least another year due to the stalemate at Chingrighata.
“The Orange Line should have reached the airport by the end of next year. Now, that will be delayed... Don’t know for how long. If we get the permission tomorrow, the project will be complete by the end of 2028,” he said.
He also mentioned the Purple Line, where construction of Esplanade station has stalled because traders at BC Roy Market are unwilling to shift to an alternate location. The PWD is responsible for the upkeep of the market.
The budget proposed ₹705.50 crore for the Orange Line and ₹906.60 crore for the Purple Line.
Yellow Line
The proposed amount for the upcoming Yellow Line has not yet been specified, said Metro officials.
The Yellow Line aims to connect Noapara and Barasat and is now operational between Noapara and the airport. Mishra said construction is underway up to Michael Nagar, with a proposal sent to the Railway Board for an underground extension from Michael Nagar to Barasat. Approval is pending.
Blue Line
The Blue Line, Calcutta’s oldest and most popular Metro link, runs between Dakshineswar and Shahid Khudiram (Briji). Commercial services have been suspended at Kavi Subhash (New Garia), the southern terminal, since July 28 last year due to cracks in pillars on the Dakshineswar-bound platform.
The carrier was supposed to have taken up a raze-and-rebuild job of the Up platform at New Garia in November.
“The plan and design are ready. Work will begin in April and take around seven to eight months,” Mishra said.
A major overhaul of the Blue Line infrastructure, which is now 40 years old, is also planned.
The Railway Board has sanctioned around ₹700 crore for installation of a communications-based train control system, and a proposal for ₹900 crore for engineering work has been submitted, Mishra said.
Green Line
For the East-West Metro, or Green Line, which is fully functional, the budget proposed ₹529 crore. The amount is mainly to clear financial liabilities, said an official.
Of the total, ₹30 crore will be used to reconstruct Bowbazar homes damaged by multiple incidents of subsidence, said a senior official of the Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation (KMRC), the implementing agency.