Tunnel-boring work for E-W Metro to recommence soon: Official

Work for the city's East-West Metro corridor, which had come to a halt following an accident

last year, will recommence soon, a senior KMRC official here said on Thursday.

Tunnel-boring work was put on hold after a machine hit an aquifer on August 31 at Bowbazar area, leading to severe

ground subsidence and collapse of buildings. "We will restart tunnelling work soon; precautions and

safety measures are being taken for the purpose in keeping with the guidelines given by the Calcutta High Court," KMRC

general manager (administration) A K Nandy told PTI here. The Calcutta High Court had on February 11 allowed the

resumption of tunnel-boring work for the corridor. Accepting a report by IIT-Madras, the court's division

bench directed the Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation (KMRC), the executing agency for the project, to restart operations in

Bowbazar area, in consultation with the institute. The bench comprising Chief Justice TBN Radhakrishnan

and Justice Arijit Banerjee had in September last year ordered the suspension of tunnelling work till further orders.

Three months later, the KMRC, in view of a report prepared by its expert committee, moved the court seeking its

permission to resume operations. On a prayer by an NGO to get the expert committee

report vetted by an independent agency, the KMRC requested IIT-Madras to review its findings.

The institute, in its report, stated that tunnel- boring work could be resumed.

On February 13, the 4.88km-long first phase of the East-West Metro, connecting Sector V in Salt Lake with Yuva

Bharati Krirangan stadium, got functional. Inaugurating the service, Railway Minister Piyush

Goyal had said the entire 16.5-km stretch of the corridor - from Sector V to Howrah Maidan - is likely to be ready in two

years.