It's official: E-W Metro's Sealdah-Esp stretch finally set to open next Fri
TOI has been reporting on the anticipated launch of the last 2.6 km Esplanade-Sealdah stretch of the East-West Metro or Green Line, the first 7 km Noapara-Airport section of the Yellow Line, and Phase II of the Orange Line (4.4 km Ruby-Metropolitan) since Aug 6.
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Finally, on Thursday, Union railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw shared the information with the BJP functionaries in Bengal. Extending an invitation to Sukanta Majumdar, Union minister of state for education and development of the northeastern region, the railway minister wrote: "Hon'ble Prime Minister will inaugurate the Sealdah-Esplanade Metro section, Beleghata (as the station at Metropolitan is called)-Hemanta Mukhopadhyay (the station at EM Bypass' Ruby crossing) and Noapara-Jai Hind (airport Metro station), the subway at Howrah metro station and flag off trains in these sections on 22 Aug 2025."
The letter was forwarded to the media by Majumdar, who also wrote on X: "This is a historic gift for West Bengal before Durga Puja."
"At last, the city's biggest infrastructure project will finally run its full 16.6 km length, connecting Sector V on the east and Howrah Maidan on the west of the Hooghly," an engineer of KMRC, the implementing agency of the Rs 10,000 crore project, said.
Apart from the East-West Metro, the commissioning of the Noapara-Airport or the Yellow Line will be very significant for the transportation sector as Kolkata will get its first metro-airport connectivity.
The Noapara station is a part of the 32 km North-South Metro or Blue Line, which also has an interface with the East-West Metro at Esplanade. Flyers from Howrah, Kolkata, and the southern and northern suburbs will now have the option of availing Metro services to board an aircraft.
The 9.2 km Sector V-Sealdah section could not continue to Esplanade since the authorities had to skip the in-between 2.6 km Esplanade-Sealdah stretch, which suffered several setbacks because it passes through the subsidence-ridden Bowbazar area.
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