West Bengal: Don't need Purple Line station at Kidderpore, state govt tells Metro
At the project monitoring group (PMG) meeting last month, the state govt said: 'The approval for this land is pending at the policy level. The user agency may consider making the line without the Khidderpore station, after consulting ministry of railways.'
The state chief secretary and other senior bureaucrats, along with RVNL, the implementing agency of the Joka-Esplanade (Purple) line, attended the May 9 PMG meeting at Nabanna.
The state's views are recorded in the minutes of the meeting.
Following this, the PMG recommended 'user agency (RVNL) to take up the issue of skipping the Kidderpore station with ministry of railways, also highlighting the pros and cons.'
RVNL is now drawing up the Purple Line's alignment without Kidderpore station, exploring alternatives to save the 3.5 km Mominpore-Victoria Memorial section.
If the in-between Kidderpore station is skipped, the Commission of Railway Safety (CRS), the autonomous body that gives the mandatory nod to revenue operations of a Metro line, will ask for a ventilation-cum-passenger evacuation shaft to be built halfway.
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For the sake of passenger safety, maximum distance allowed between two Metro stations is 1.5 km.
Metro GM P Uday Kumar Reddy said on Saturday, 'It is now clear that the state is not interested in having us build a station at Kidderpore. Surveys have shown that the proposed station is expected to be used by 44,000 every day. It is the locals (of Kidderpore) who will be losing out on the metro connectivity. It is the city's loss.'
The underground Kidderpore station would have been built below the arterial Diamond Harbour Road. Land measuring 837 sq m at Kolkata Armed Police's Alipore Bodyguard Lines would have been used for traffic diversion, shifting utilities, building accesses, etc., while DH Road is blocked for the station construction.
The GM added that both Metro Railway and Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd (RVNL) are trying their best to wriggle out of the situation, even as finding a solution would be 'very difficult'.
Officials said without the Kidderpore metro station, the above facility should be located at the racecourse. But RCTC authorities are citing rules against any overground construction, given that the racecourse is also used for the landing of choppers ferrying VVIPs.
The roadblock comes at a time when Metro Railway is focusing on the Purple Line's extension beyond Esplanade to Eden Gardens and from Joka to IIM-Calcutta.
The Joka-Esplanade line now runs 7.7 km from Joka to Majerhat. The 8.8 km elevated Metro is supposed to duck 5 km underground beyond Mominpore with four stations dotting the stretch. Construction of three underground stations — Victoria, Park Street and Esplanade — has started along with the elevated Mominpore station.
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