Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday expressed pleasure over the metro trial run under the Hooghly river in the Kolkata district of West Bengal.
“Great news for Kolkata and an encouraging trend for public transport in India,” tweeted PM Modi in response to a tweet by Union Minister for Railways, Ashwini Vaishnaw.
Just a day before, Vaishnaw tweeted a video of the trial run.
“Train travels underwater! Trial run of train through another engineering marvel; metro rail tunnel and station under Hooghly river,” informed the minister on Friday. The 38-second video clip shows a glimpse of the trial run. The footage has garnered 870K views at the time of writing this news.
“This is a historic moment for Metro Railway as after overcoming many hurdles we have succeeded in running rakes beneath the Hooghly River,” Kaushik Mitra, the chief public relation officer of Kolkata Metro, said, reported news agency PTI.
This will be India’s first underwater railway tunnel and station. The station is 33 meters in depth. Interestingly, it is also the biggest underwater river tunnel in South Asia. It is constructed by Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation.
About Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation
Serving the city of Kolkata in West Bengal, the Kolkata Metro is a rapid transit system. It has a total length of 46.96 km (29.18 mi). As of January 2023, it has three operational lines:
a) Dakshineswar to Kavi Subhash (31.36 km)
b) Salt Lake Sector V to Sealdah (9.1 km)
c) Joka to Taratala (6.5 km)
Additionally, three other lines are in various stages of construction.
Longest underwater tunnel
Talking about the underwater railway tunnel, Seikan Tunnel in Japan is the longest underwater tunnel by an overall length in the world. It is a 53.85 km (dual-gauge) railway tunnel. Its 23.3 km portion is under the seabed of the Tsugaru Strait. This strait divides Aomori Prefecture (on the main Japanese island of Honshu) from the northern island of Hokkaido.
The track level is nearly 100 m below the seabed and 240 m below the level of the sea. It is owned by Japan Railway Construction, Transport, and Technology Agency. JR Hokkaido is the operator.