The construction work of the seven elevated stations of the New Garia-Airport Metro corridor along the 7km stretch between Novotel hotel and City Centre II has finally been started on Friday (14th August 2020), last week.
The stalled work was restarted with a commencement ceremony inside the Kalakhetra station near New Town’s Biswa Bangla Gate. Senior officials of Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL) and ITD-Cementation Town attended the ceremony, maintaining Covid-19 safety protocols.
RVNL, which is implementing most of the city’s metro projects, has asked ITD to complete the stations and bring them to the stage of commissioning in two years.
“Since the station structures are already in place, ITD should be able to complete the stations in two years,” a senior RVNL official said.
The seven stations are Titumir, Sub CBD-2, Convention Centre, New Town, Kalakhetra, CBD-1 and Sub CBD-1. Twenty-four elevated stations are coming up on the New Garia-Airport line.
RVNL is trying to fast-track the first phase, covering 5km between Kavi Subhas and Hemanta Mukherjee station (Ruby crossing) so that it can be operated by December 2021. Work is on in full swing for terminal Kavi Subhas station and the car depot next to it.
The Rs 107-crore depot, which holds the key to the truncated operation, is due to be completed by July next year. Once ready, it will be integrated with existing north-south Metro depot to become the city’s biggest Metro hub where rakes from the existing line and the upcoming New Garia-Airport link will be parked, repaired and maintained.
The depot, which will allow car movement from the north-south alignment to the New Garia-Airport alignment, is being set up by Noida-based ISGEC Heavy Engineering. “Piling work is on now. Work has suffered because of the lockdown. But we are trying to compensate for the lost period,” an RVNL official said.