Smriti Irani likely to inaugurate E-W's Sealdah metro station on July 11

Sealdah, a major station of the East West Metro corridor, will be inaugurated on July 11 for which Union minister Smriti Irani has been invited, an official said here on Saturday.

The commercial services between Sector V in Salt Lake and Sealdah will start from July 14, Metro Railway spokesperson Ekalabya Chakraborty said.

The Metro authorities are pinning hopes that the extension of services up to Sealdah will significantly increase the number of passengers in the partially operational East West Metro corridor, which is suffering from low patronage.

"Sealdah station of East West Metro will be inaugurated on Monday and Union minister Smriti Irani has been invited to inaugurate it," he said.

Even if the Union minister of women & child development and minority affairs is unable to make time, the inauguration will still be held on that day, Chakraborty said.

The Metro station will link suburban train services to and from Sealdah, one of the busiest terminal railway stations in the country, thus providing connectivity to the passengers travelling to Salt Lake and Information Technology hub at Sector V there.

The East West Metro section connecting Howrah Maidan and Salt Lake is partially operational at present with services being operated between Sector V station and Phoolbagan.

Out of the 16.6 km length of East West Metro, underground corridor constitutes 10.8 km between Howrah and Phoolbagan with the tunnel passing below the Hooghly river. For the rest of the route, trains will travel on elevated tracks, according to KMRC, the executing agency of the project.

Several houses developed cracks during the underground work for the East West Metro line at Bowbazar in central Kolkata in May, nearly three years after a similar incident there.

On August 31, 2019, a tunnel boring machine hit an aquifer leading to severe ground subsidence and collapse of several buildings at Bowbazar. It caused a delay in completion of the project, which was earlier scheduled for December 2021.