The Hooghly river underwater tunnel, the first of its kind in India, is estimated to be completely operational within a period of a few months. The Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation (KMRC) has expanded its East-West corridor to include the twin tunnels, which will span the Hooghly river for around 500 metres.
This unique project is compared with the Eurostar, the one which connects London and Paris. The estimates indicate that the train will be submerged at a depth equal to a ten floor building. The underwater section of the metro line will consist of twin tunnels made of 1.4 m-wide concrete rings. In order to prevent the water from getting inside, the tunnels even consist of hydrophilic gaskets.
The overall cost of the entire project is around ₹8,600 crore, and this underwear tunnel is expected to be fully functional by March 2023. As per the information, the tunnel has been constructed approximately 13 metres below the Hooghly river bed. The Howrah metro station will be the deepest one in the country.
With this, India is set to experience its first-ever train journey under a river. Kolkata’s upcoming metro will be the country’s first train to cover a 16.34-kilometer East-West line under a river.
It will drastically reduce the journey time. The Kolkata Green Line currently runs only 6.97 kilometres between Phoolbagan and Sector V in East Kolkata. Meanwhile, after this new project, the train will travel a greater distance from Sector V to Howrah, under the Hooghly river, in just 27 minutes.
