Howrah, Manoranjan Singh: Country’s first ‘underwater’ metro train (Metro Train) started from Friday. The first train from Howrah Maidan under the Hooghly River via Howrah station ran on Kolkata’s East-West Metro Corridor at 7 am, while the second train started at the same time from Dharmatala Metro station. During this period, a lot of enthusiasm was seen among the passengers. On the first day, thousands of passengers enjoyed the journey in the ‘underwater’ metro train and expressed happiness. During this, the passengers clapped in the train, many expressed their enthusiasm by making noise. Meanwhile, some also raised slogans of Jai Shri Ram, while a section of passengers raised slogans of ‘This is Modi’s guarantee’. Someone raised slogans of Modi’s guarantee. To be a part of the “first underwater metro” on the first day, hundreds of passengers had gathered at the stations in Howrah Maidan from 2.30 in the night till early morning.
Crowd seen at both the stations
Long queues of passengers were seen at both Howrah Maidan in Howrah and Dharamtala Chhod station in Kolkata in the morning to get tickets. Whereas the officials also welcomed the passengers by giving them rose flowers and chocolates as soon as the train started from the metro station and when they entered. There was enthusiasm among the passengers. At Howrah Maidan station, some passengers raised slogans of ‘Jai Shri Ram’ as soon as they boarded the train.
People ran towards the window to catch a glimpse of light in the tunnel.
As soon as the metro train reached the lower part of the river, the happiness of the passengers traveling in the train knew no bounds. At the same time, some passengers ran towards the window to get a glimpse of the light of the tunnel wall under the Hooghly river. To give the effect of water on both sides of the moving train, special blue lights have been arranged on the inner wall of the tunnels under the river.
45 seconds to cover 520 meters long down river
The downstream part of the tunnel is 520 meters long and it takes about 45 seconds for a train to cross it. Metro Railway spokesperson Kaushik Mitra said that so far there has been an overwhelming response and people had come as early as 2.30 in the night to experience the first underwater metro services in the country. According to a statement issued by the Metro Railway, the 4.8 km long section of East-West Metro from Howrah Maidan to Dharmatala has been built at a cost of Rs 4,965 crore. The services for passengers started from Friday after Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Howrah Maidan-Esplanade section of the East-West Corridor of Kolkata Metro on March 6. This is the first start of underwater metro services in India.
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