Latest news with #Joka-Esplanade
Time of India
16-07-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Work on Purple Line's Kidderpore station starts
1 2 Kolkata: The two-year impasse over permission to use land inside the Kolkata Armed Police property have been resolved with the agencies conducting inspections of the Alipore Bodyguard Lines on Wednesday to start the pre-construction work for the Purple Line's Kidderpore station. Around 800 square metres inside the police lines are needed mainly to widen Diamond Harbour Road, below which the corridor's first underground station will be constructed. On June 26, Metro Railway overcame the Kidderpore station hurdle with the KMC issuing an NOC for land use inside Alipore Bodyguard Lines. Wednesday's inspection by Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd (RVNL), the implementing agency of the 14km Joka-Esplanade project, and Kolkata Police, related to chalking out the basic work plan inisde the police barracks. RVNL engineers, in consultation with officials of Kolkata Armed Police, custodians of these barracks at Ekbalpore, marked out an 837 square metre area inside Bodyguard Lines and identified the structures to be relocated to free up the land. "The final design of the station will be based on the Bodyguard Lines land use," an official said. Apart from widening a 380-metre stretch of DH Road by 5 metres along the western flank, the land will also be used to build a ventilation shaft, the metro station's accesses and the relocation of utilities lying below arterial DH Road. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Co-live Spaces Starting from 42L+ | Whitefield Sumadhura Learn More Undo As per conditions laid by the state govt, certain sections of the 380-metre stretch between Ekbalpore and St Thomas' School (from where the underground tunnelling starts) will be widened temporarily. "The original boundary in certain sections will be restored once the Kidderpore station construction is over," an official said. You Can Also Check: Kolkata AQI | Weather in Kolkata | Bank Holidays in Kolkata | Public Holidays in Kolkata RVNL has listed the infringing structures, which include some godowns, an underground reservoir, water supply lines, a temple and a PWD office. While RVNL will shift the godowns and the temple, PWD will shift its office. RVNL has paid KMC Rs 45 crore to relocate the sewer lines between Mominpore and Kidderpore. Therefore, the civic body will be relaying the sewer lines below the land available inside Bodyguard Lines. The Purple Line — with extension plans of 1.6 km to Eden Gardens in the north and 1.2 km to IIM-Calcutta on the southern fringes and the crucial interchange with the Blue Line (North-South Metro) at Esplanade — promises to emerge as a lifeline for the people of Behala and beyond. Without access to Bodyguard Lines all this time, the project ran into severe crisis even as work for the 5km underground section and the other three underground stations (Victoria, Park Street, and Esplanade) was in full swing.
Time of India
08-06-2025
- Business
- Time of India
West Bengal: Don't need Purple Line station at Kidderpore, state govt tells Metro
KOLKATA: The state govt has formally communicated to Metro Railway that it is unable to part with land at Bodyguard Lines to make way for the Purple Line's Kidderpore metro station. 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. Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Keep Your Home Efficient with This Plug-In elecTrick - Save upto 80% on Power Bill Learn More Undo 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.
