Kolkata Metro Line 1


The Line 1, also known as North–South Metro of the Kolkata Metro, is a rapid transit system serving Kolkata and North 24 Parganas in Indian state of West Bengal. It consists of 24 operational stations from Kavi Subhash to Noapara, of which 7 are elevated, 2 are at grade and the remaining 15 are underground and 2 other elevated stations under construction with a total distance of 31 km. The line connects Noapara and New Garia and uses Broad gauge rolling stock. Noapara was opened on 10 July 2013 and is elevated and is located 2.09 km. north of Dum Dum. It was the first underground railway to be built in India, with the first operations commencing in October 1984 and the full stretch that was initially planned being operational by February 1995. On 28 December 2010, it became the 17th zone of the Indian Railways. Being the country's first, and a completely indigenous process, the construction of the Kolkata Metro was more of a trial-and-error affair, in contrast to the Delhi Metro, which has seen the involvement of numerous international consultants. As a result, it took nearly 23 years to completely construct around 15 km underground railway from Birpara up to Tollygunj Metro Station.

History

The laying of the founding stone was done in 1972, but actual construction of line 1 started only in 1978. Line 1 is 27.28 km long with 24 stations. Running of the first metro car on the line by 1984 was considered a great engineering challenge. Former railways minister A. B. A. Ghani Khan Chowdhury took a massive effort to perform it. The first section opened between Esplanade & Bhawanipore. First day Metro Railway Kolkata was started by Sri Tapan Kumar Nath and Sri Sanjay Sil. There were no connections of this stretch with the two depots at Dum Dum & Tollygunge. So metro cars had to be put down on the track near Esplanade by crane, by directly digging the road surface. Initially, only four-car trains were run until 1986. There were no magnetic gates or escalators at that time and ordinary revolving gates served as exits. The Metro too operated on only a single line. Two years later, line 1 extended up to Tollygunge, at the southern end. At the same time, the metro service was extended to the double line. Magnetic tickets and more entry gates were also introduced at that time. The number of compartments in each train was increased to eight.
Metro service was also started from Dum Dum, at the northern end, to Belgachia in parallel with the extension of the line to the south. But this short portion was not popular and the service was closed down to be restarted when the entire stretch along the north-south corridor was completed.
After 1986 many political incidents hampered the construction, and work almost stopped for nearly six years. After restarting work, the Dum Dum to Shyambazar metro service was started in 1994. This portion was served by four-car trains. Two months later, the Esplanade – Chandni Chowk section was opened and Chandni Chowk – Central section opened three months later. The service from Dum Dum to Tollygunge started in 1995, with Mahatma Gandhi Road metro station, opening in 1996. During this time, more magnetic gates and escalators were added and the revolving gates were slowly phased out.
In 2009, a large number of stations on Line 1 were renamed by then Minister of Railways Mamata Banerjee.

Timeline

The following dates represent the dates the section opened to the public, not the private inauguration.

Route & future extension

Map

List of stations (North to South)

The stations of this Corridors are:

Alignment & interchanges

, Park Street, Mahanayak Uttam Kumar, Netaji, Masterda Surya Sen, Gitanjali, Kavi Nazrul, Shahid Khudiram and Kavi Subhash have side platforms; all other stations have island platforms. Central and Noapara are exceptions as they have both platforms on the sides as well as in the centre. Dum Dum, Kavi Subhash and Rabindra Sarobar have connections to interchange with Kolkata Suburban Railway. Shyambazar, Mahatma Gandhi Road, Esplanade, Kalighat, Rabindra Sarobar & Mahanayak Uttam Kumar stations have connections to the tram network. EM Bypass can be accessed from the Shahid Khudiram metro station and Kavi Subhash metro station.

Extension up to New Garia

during her first tenure as the railway minister initiated the project of Tollygunj – Garia metro extension. During her second tenure she inaugurated the extension, and also introduced new Air Conditioned rakes, manufactured indigenously at the Integral Coach Factory.
The new extension to Garia Bazar in the south opened to the public on 23 August 2009. The Garia Bazar station was named after Kavi Nazrul. A final extension, in the southern end, from Kavi Nazrul to Kavi Subhash was inaugurated on 7 October 2010, bringing the total number of stations to 23. On the same day, two Air-Conditioned rakes were also pressed into service.

Future extension

The plan to extend Line 1 in the north from Noapara to Dakshineswar is under execution now. It will be met by the metro line from Barrackpore at Baranagar.
The stations on this stretch will be:
  1. Baranagar
  2. Dakshineswar

    Features

Technical features

Metro construction is of a very complex nature requiring the application of several new technologies in the fields of civil, electrical, signaling and telecommunication engineering. Indian engineers backed by their own experience and supplemented by their studies abroad adopted advanced technologies in the following fields for the first time in India.

Rolling stock

The whole fleet is vestibuled. Carbodies and mechanical components were made by ICF with electrical components made by NGEF, Bangalore. The fleet is unique in that it is the only railroad equipment in India with end-mounted cab doors.
ICF has specifically designed, manufactured and supplied these cars for the first underground railway system. The special features incorporated are:
With all these features, the design and manufacturing process of these cars to a very high standard of reliability and safety has been a challenge. This was achieved without any technical collaboration.

Reservation for women

In 2008, the Kolkata Metro Railway experimented with the practice of reserving two entire compartments for women.
This system was found to be ineffective and caused inconvenience for a lot of commuters and the plan was eventually dropped by the metro authority. But a certain section of seats in each of the eight compartments is reserved for women.

Problems with this line

The coaches were manufactured by ICF with no air-conditioning Indian Railways signalling was adopted instead of European signalling.
The founder of Delhi Metro, E. Sreedharan said Indian Railways are not experts at urban transport, and misplanned the Kolkata metro from the beginning. A private company should run the metro and can bring it up to standard in five years.
Since, Kolkata Metro is under Indian Railways, it can't take its own independent decisions. It has to rely on Indian Railways for everything. The rakes are ordered directly from ICF without floating any global tenders. And ICF being inexperienced in manufacturing metro rakes, has delivered faulty rakes. Thus causing snags and accidents.