The Metro viaduct has finally bridged EM Bypass at Chingrighata, and officials are hopeful that the line connecting New Garia to the Calcutta airport (Orange Line), will have trains running up to Sector V by December-end.
Once that happens, the commute time between New Garia and Sector V, a distance of around 30km, will reduce to 35–40 minutes, even during peak hours.
On Monday, around 5.25am, the second — and last — phase of the Metro work of placing concrete girders at Chingrighata was completed.
The work of bridging a 366-metre gap at one of the city’s crucial traffic intersections on EM Bypass had been pending since September 2024 because the Kolkata Police did not grant a no-objection certificate (NOC). The permission was required for traffic blocks needed for the work that took six days across two phases to complete.
The Orange line currently operates between Kavi Subhash and Beleghata stations from Monday to Friday at an interval of around 25 minutes. There is no service on the weekends.
Metro officials said that now that the 366-metre gap has been bridged, work to link the Metro line from Beleghata to Sector V will start immediately.
“We will begin with putting up pre-fabricated parapet structures and iron railings on this stretch, and follow it up with installing bearings. These are required before the railway track is laid on a stretch that will cover around 700 metre,” an official of the Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL), the implementing agency of the project, said.
A section of engineers said that before the railway tracks are laid, a team of experts will survey the alignment of the stretch.
“This is crucial because the stretch under consideration on EM Bypass has a curvature around Captain Bheri,” the official said.
“Once the rail tracks are laid, the next job will involve laying electrical cables for signalling.”
The distance between the Beleghata station and Sector V is around 6km. Metro officials said the part of the project, from Sukantanagar near Chingrighata to Sector V, is almost ready, with tracks and signalling cables already laid.
“We have decided that the work of laying rail tracks and cables for signalling will be completed by October. This will ensure that the stretch of the Metro up to Sector V is ready for multiple trials,” the official said.
“We hope to connect New Garia and Sector V by the end of December.
Ahead of the formal launch, engineers said there would be a series of trials, first without signals, and then with the signals on the entire stretch between Beleghata and Sector V.
The data from the trials will be analysed and final tweaks made before the report is sent to the commissioner of railway safety seeking statutory clearance.
“The work will gather further momentum beginning in June, keeping the December-end deadline in place by which Sector V should be connected,” the official said.
