The New Kolkata - How Gigantic Metro projects are reshaping the city landscape

It has been a week since Barry Richmond came to Kolkata. His host Geeta Ramani knew the city well and was happy to offer insight. She loved the open-mindedness and intellectual curiosity of the city. “Kolkata is laid back, old world, colonial. People have time; it’s a little easier”, said Geeta.

In Bengali culture women are always considered equal” – rather a natural manifestation than the idea of being more privileged!

“It’s very progressive, I didn’t even think about being feminist because I never needed to be.”

That is Kolkata for you.

And when Barry strode off to buy a book - knowing Kolkata’s reputation as an educated city and its love for books, venturing into College Street was easy taking the underground Metro to Central Station. Oh, back to a decade or two, it amounted to a sweating ride on a bus full of smoke and dust. What a relief!!

Kolkata’s population swelled to 1 crore 40 lakh in 2011 from a simple 15 lakh 20 thousand in 1901 – a burst of more than 800% in 110 years (only Mumbai and Delhi have higher demographic profile). Surprisingly, its population is 60% in non-farming sector (I am taken aback – what happens to agriculture?) resulting in urban per capita GDP (gross domestic product) blossoming into more than Rs.1,68,000. On the flip side new roads had woefully stopped coming primarily owing to thinly laid bare land and, more so, because of overpopulated and dense housings. No wonder Kolkata became a hotbed for an underground “rapid transit system”.

Popular business models show that a city or town must have a per capita GDP threshold coupled with population density for any metro operation to become viable.

As the blueprints were tabled, the Calcuttans suffered many a torn roads and shivering gothics. It was time for the underground metro to announce its arrival. And the first Metro trudged on in 1984.

The Metro Lines: The whole of Kolkata metro landscape has been marked by six zones fondly called the “lines”

Blue Line: The Line 1 of Kolkata Metro is the North-South Metro line. It is now referred to as the Blue Line. The route comprises 26 stations with 15 underground stations, two stations on the surface and 9 elevated stations. It covers about 32 kilometres of distance from Kavi Subhas to Dakshineswar.

The oldest metro line that was started in the city on October 24, 1984, was a small section of 3.4 kilometres, connecting Esplanade to Bhowanipore (now Netaji Bhavan). More sections were later opened, such as Tollygunge metro station to New Garia station along an elevated route. In 2013, the line was extended in the north with a new section connecting Dum Dum station to Noapara. In February 2021, a four-km section from Noapara to Dakshineswar became operational.

Green Line: The Kolkata Metro Line 2 route includes a total of 17 stations with 11 elevated stations and six underground stations spanning a distance of 22 kms. On February 13, 2020, the first phase of the East West Metro corridor from Salt Lake Sector V to Salt Lake Stadium was inaugurated. The Phoolbagan Metro station was the first underground metro station in the East West Metro route to be opened.

East - West metro: Kolkata Metro underwater tunnel

The 16.6 km long East-West Metro corridor includes 5.8 kms of the elevated route and 10.8 kms of an underground section. Of this 16.6-km stretch, 520 metres will be under the riverbed of the river Hooghly. The twin cities of Kolkata and Howrah will be connected by an underwater tunnel is developed 33 metres below the riverbed of the river Hooghly. The Green Line will finally connect Howrah with Teghoria.

East West Metro is the most ambitious project of Kolkata Metro. As shown in the figure above the full operation will be carried out in two phases. Phase-I will connect Sector-V to Sealdah Station – Phoolbagan and Sealdah will be underground stations and Sector-V to Phoolbagan would have elevated stations (elevated stations are the ones structured above ground). Sealdah to Howrah Maidan will be completed in Phase-II.

Purple Line: The Line 3 of the Kolkata Metro is under construction. The route will start from Joka Metro station in the south and connect Esplanade in the north, covering a distance of around 15 kms. The project will be developed by Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL) owned by the Indian Railways.

Yellow Line: The Line 4 or the Yellow Line metro route in Kolkata will connect Noapara and Barasat in North 24 Parganas. This Kolkata Metro route, which is under construction, will be around 16.8 kms.

Pink Line: A 12.5-km metro stretch will be developed, connecting Baranagar to Barrackpore as part of the Kolkata Metro’s Pink Line route.

Orange Line: This 29.8-km route of Kolkata Metro will link New Garia with Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport via the two satellite towns of Salt Lake and New Town. Once opened, metro Line 6 route in Kolkata will provide easy access to the Kolkata Airport, especially for those living in the southern and the eastern parts of the city.

As the Future Beholds:

About one million people join India’s workforce every month. And our country of roughly 1.35 billion is poised to hit a demographic sweet spot in about two decades (when optimal number of India’s population would be in the working age and will have few dependents – World Economic Forum). In order to successfully graduate from lower-middle-income status and comfortably take over from China as the world’s fastest growing major economy, India must rewire its labour force and make its infrastructure better nourished and more open.

Clearly the population explosion will lead to rapid urbanisation (the China Model) and medium to small cities will have appreciable per capita GDP. India has lined up major overhaul of these cities with Metro Neo and Metro Lite rapid transport systems.

Metro Neo’s are lighter and smaller than the existing model Metro trains and cost around 25% of the conventional systems. Metro Lite costs around 40% of normal Metro budgetary outlays.

Some of the proposed Neo and Lite cities are Amritsar, Ludhiana, Chandigarh, Jalandhar, Jabalpur, Ranchi, Hubli, Mathura, Dholera, Thane, Gwalior, Bareilly, Dehradun, Bhubaneswar, Mangalore apart from Uttarakhand, Raipur, Vadodara, Rajkot, Prayagraj to name a few.

Barry was overwhelmed to know all this from Geeta – sitting in a London tube, Barry was enamoured with the glint and positivity of Indian economy and what he had seen back in Kolkata a couple of weeks ago. He will miss soaking the serene simplicity and raw warmth of the wonderful City of Joy!

Disclaimer: The names Barry Richmond and Geeta Ramani are imaginary and do not have any resemblance to any person(s) dead or alive.