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Time of India
a day ago
- General
- Time of India
Kavi Subhash stn to be razed, truncated N-S Metro services for at least a year
Kolkata: Commuters may have to wait an entire year to use Kavi Subhash metro station, the terminal station of the North-South Blue Line, which is also the city's lifeline. Metro Railway has decided to demolish the station and rebuild it after cracks appeared on its columns, which were found to be beyond repair. "We have already started the razing work. Workers have been assigned to dismantle parts of the station – the signal and telecom (ST) equipment and so on," a senior official of Metro Railway said on Tuesday, a day after the station was shut down and metro services terminated at Sahid Khudiram. When asked to comment, Metro Railway general manager P Uday Kumar Reddy said: "The station's piers or columns on which the platform stands have weakened beyond repair. If the pillars are to be dismantled, how can the station remain? The entire Kavi Subhash station will have to be rebuilt." You Can Also Check: Kolkata AQI | Weather in Kolkata | Bank Holidays in Kolkata | Public Holidays in Kolkata The general manager added that Metro Railway has been planning to rectify the constructional defects of Kavi Subhash station for some time now. "We have invited tenders from contractors who can do the restoration work. We would have started after Durga Puja. But now, we are suddenly faced with an emergency situation with the heavy downpour that seemed to have led to some ground subsidence. Therefore, the work has to be taken up without further delay. " The Officials confirmed that this was the first time in the history of Kolkata Metro that a station was being dismantled and rebuilt. "All the other 25 stations of the 40-year-old North-South line, extended in various phases to Kavi Subhash in the south and Dakshineswar on the northern fringes, are in good shape," an official said. The 32km Blue Line's southern extension happened in two phases in 2009-10, first between the then terminal Tollygunge or Uttam Kumar metro station to Garia Bazar (Kavi Nazrul) and then to New Garia (Kavi Subhash). The final section in the southern end was opened in Oct 2010. "Over the last four decades, the corridor has remained the city's transportation lifeline, ferrying around 6 lakh passengers every day, but no other station's design has been as flawed as the terminal Kavi Subhash station. The station's overhaul has been long overdue because the authorities have been aware of the structural issues," said Subhasis Sengupta, vice-president, the INTTUC-affiliated Metro Railway Progotisil Shramik Karmachari Union. Metro officials said the process of inviting bids for rebuilding Kavi Subhash station is underway. "We were a bit unprepared for what happened yesterday. Different kinds of planning are going on. Our utmost priority is passenger safety and security. We shall also try our best to get the work completed as quickly as possible, so that operations can be resumed at Kavi Subhash station," the Metro GM said. He said the station would be opened to the public as soon as the rebuilt station was in a position to run trains safely. The superficial and architectural works can continue even after the station has started functioning, an official said.
Time of India
10-07-2025
- General
- Time of India
‘Durga' starts working under Purple Line of Kolkata Metro
Kolkata: There are 72 days still left for Mahalaya but Durga has started her journey — not from the heavens, rather beneath the earth. It is not the deity but the tunnel boring machine S1410 — used for the Purple Line metro works — nicknamed 'Durga. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now ' The tunnelling for the 5 km Mominpur-Esplanade section of the Purple Line began on Thursday. The machine started burrowing at Kidderpore to build one of the twin underground tunnels. "This is a historic day for Kolkata. Tunnelling starts days after the state govt finally allowed Metro to use land at Alipore Bodyguard Lines for key Purple Line station construction at Kidderpore," Metro Railway general manager, P Uday Kumar Reddy said, after pressing a button for the giant machine to roll below the 236-year-old St Thomas' Boys' School at Kidderpore. Sibling TBM Divya (S1410A), being assembled inside the same 17 m-deep launching shaft, will start digging a month later to maintain a 150 m gap with Durga. The duo's first stop will be at the Victoria Memorial, across 1.7 km. The 95 m long borers will be relaunched from the Victoria Metro station box for another 950 m of tunnelling to Park Street, beyond which the 640 m stretch to Esplanade will be built using the cut-and-cover method (without TBMs). "Durga should reach Victoria by May 2026 and Park Street by Dec 2026," Vipin Kumar, chief project manager of the project implementing agency, Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd (RVNL), said. Other RVNL officials, including executive director (ED) Amit Tandon, attended the Puja to mark the occasion. The Purple Line (14 km Joka-Esplanade corridor) now runs on an elevated 8 km Joka-Majerhat stretch. It will duck underground near Ekbalpore, not far from the last elevated station at Mominpore. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now TOI reported on Mar 9 that mammoth 650-tonne tunnel boring machine had completed 1,600-km journey from Tamil Nadu to Kolkata. Guided by superior technology, the earth pressure balance (EPB) machines can dig through rock, soil or sand to build tunnels with precast segment rings. Traditionally, TBMs are given feminine names from the time when Saint Barbara, patron saint of miners, would be invoked to save those working with explosives for underground construction in the 16th century. "In the land of Maa Durga, it only seemed appropriate to christen a TBM after the deity. The twin TBM is called Divya, which, in Sanskrit, stands for divine," an official explained. The TBMs were assembled in Herrenknecht's Alinjivakkam unit in Tamil Nadu. "Durga, with a 6.6 m outer diameter arrived in March and was subsequently lowered in the St Thomas' launching shaft," Kumar said. Extra precautions are being taken to ensure the TBMs dig safely, taking note of the East-West Metro tunnelling fiasco in Bowbazar, the Metro GM said. On the Orange line's Chingrighata hurdle, he said, "The railway minister recently requested the state govt to take the project forward. The cost is soaring. It's the taxpayers' money."
