Kolkata Metro Updates

[Global Citizen62]

Originally Posted by kolmetrofan

Kolkata, June 7 (PTI) To reduce queue at ticket counters, Kolkata Metro Railway today said they will introduce user-operated automatic smart card recharge machine at all stations by the end of this year. Money would be credited in the smart card by inserting 100 rupees notes, officials said. The machines have been bought from the Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS) at a price of Rs 2.4 lakh for each such kiosk.

Does the recharging machine accepts credit cards?
To think ahead and avoid spending money to upgrade them again soon after the launch, Railway should think of buying machines that accept both credit card and cash!

[Bombay2Calcutta]

Inside The Tunnel To Future
Krishnendu Bandyopadhyay TNN

It’s not just the weather or the geographical distance that sets the sizzling heart of Kolkata and the freezing terrains of Iceland worlds apart. But on a hot and humid Friday afternoon, the thrill, anticipation, mystery and elation in the pages of Jules Verne’s all-time favourite, ‘A Journey To The Centre Of The Earth’, came alive during a descent into what one could well describe as the heart of Kolkata. The stairs that spiralled down into the unending darkness ended near a pair of railway tracks, at a depth of about 50 feet. This was no Icelandic volcano, which Verne had picked for his greatest sci-fi plunge, but the feeling was similar for a few anxious minutes during the first visit ever to an East-West Metro tunnel.
The starting point was a pit dug beside Subhas Sarovar. The destination: the belly of a giant earthworm that is carving out Kolkata’s future at a frenzied pace in a hubbub of activity right under the languid lake. A mud-cart pulled by a diesel loco makes the journey from the foot of the stairs and right into the Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM), the multi-tasking wonder tool that drills into the earth, scoops out the muck and places tunnel rings at the same time. The TBM, 80 metres long and almost 30 feet high, has been in action for about two months now, and has drilled almost a kilometre, from the Sarobar to Phoolbagan.
The TOI team was accompanied by Subrata Gupta, managing director of the executing agency of the East-West project, Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation (KMRC). “There is an impression that no progress in the project is being made as nothing can be made out from the surface,” he said. The throng of evening walkers and couples who frequent the Sarobar for their hour of peace wouldn’t disagree. The waters are as placid and the environs as calm as ever, despite all the commotion below.
Indeed, technology can make the complex look simple. “The 700-metre underground tunnel in the northsouth Metro employed the ‘cut-andcover method’ that took four years. For the same length of tunnel, it takes less than two months here,” explained Aniruddha Roy, deputy general manager of ITD-ITD CEM Joint Venture, the contractor engaged for the tunnel work from Writers’ Buildings to the Sarovar. Roy was involved in the first Kolkata Metro project three decades ago as an engineer.
The diesel-cart is the TBM’s constant companion, collecting the mud and carrying it to a truck. The mud is dumped as land-fill material in Dankuni or Rrajarhat. The TBM has an air-conditioned control room fitted with a number of monitors constantly measuring the earth-pressure, alignment and gradient. The temperature is always kept below 30°C.
At the front of this giant earthworm is the rotating cutting wheel and an erector that places the tunnel rings. Pointing to a yellow pipe, Gupta said, “This is our lifeline in the tunnel. Through this pipe, oxygenated air is thrown into the tunnel constantly.”
“Power is supplied from two generators, each generating 2,000KV power to run the project,” said Chundee Mookhan, project manager (tunnel) of the tunnel building contractor. The generators consume 5,500 litres of diesel per day, Gupta said.
For, north-south metro cut-andcover, the damage to the buildings on either side of Central Avenue, J L Nehru Road and Asutosh Mukherjee Road were huge. “Even after the project was over, Metro railway had to pay huge compensation for the damage. To avoid this, we carried out a building condition survey along the metro alignment. On the basis of the survey, we categorized 486 buildings as good, bad, average and vulnerable. Accordingly, we formulated our underground construction strategy. In a few cases, we have strengthened the structures of the building to prevent any damage. We have put sensors to detect even hairline cracks in the foundations. The moment it is detected, we get it repaired,” Gupta said.
The most challenging part of the tunnel work will be below the riverbed. “Two tunnel boring machines, which have been re-assembled at Howrah, would be lowered along the vertical tunnel at Howrah Maidan shortly. The first station on the other side of the Hooghly will be somewhere below the ground in between platform 15 and 17 at Howrah station. We are working overtime to finish it earlier than the scheduled date of completion. Hopefully, the twin cities will be connected by Metro by early 2015,” said Gupta.



Workers toil inside the 1-km East-West Metro tunnel between Subhas Sarovar and Phoolbagan

[Bombay2Calcutta]

ET
TBM Metro II: The German beetle digs deep for 'East West Metro'

KOLKATA: Translated into Hollywood terms, this could aptly be called "TBM Metro II: Rise of The Machines". No Nick Stahl-Arnie Schwarzeneggar here.

Just a gigantic 80-metre long German beetle burrowing furiously deep underground to create a cavernous tunnel for Kolkata Metro Railway Corporation's " East West Metro" project to open up a new 14.6-km tube link between the IT hub in Salt Lake Sector V and Howrah Maidan, on the western flank of the river Ganges.

The original Metro railway project of the 1980s envisaged a north-south link between Dum Dum and Garia, a 25-km underground tube link that was done in bits and pieces over 20 long years. The utter chaos of those days - choked arterial city roads, mountains of debris, tilted or cracked residential buildings and monumental pile drivers hammering concrete pillars day and night - is still remembered by those who have lived through that.

And here, as traffic flows smoothly on the Subhas Sarovar-Phoolbagan stretch of east Kolkata, most surface commuters are unaware of this monster beetle, the twostorey high Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) guzzling 2000 KVA power continuously to create the subterranean tunnel for the trains that will run along the route in the near future.

The work is being handled by Thai and Indian engineers. ET went underground on Friday to catch a glimpse of things and met Thai operator, Phecharat "Pan" and his Indian colleague, Nemai Sangram in their makeshift control room.

Eyes glued to their computers that monitor earth pressure, they said the TBM is aligned up to 4 mm accuracy! "This is a generation apart in terms of construction technology" said Anirudhha Roy, deputy general manager of the Indo-Thai JV, ITD-ITD CEM, one of the four contractors for the KMRC project.

"Back in the 1980s, it took us four years to dig out a 750-metre underground stretch. This time we did it in 60 days," he said.

Roy was a trainee engineer in the 1980s with HCC, on the first metro project. His remarks made Chundee Mookhan, the Thai project manager (tunnel) for ITD -ITD CEM, glow. "We hope to start work on the 1.3-km Sealdah-Phoolbagan section soon," Mookhan said.

As the TBM burrows, an industrial robot places segments of a 1.2-m wide precast concrete ring. And thus 12-metre lengths of the tunnel get created everyday. What is more, apartments nearby and multi-storied buildings are all fitted with sensors to detect cracks in the buildings instantly, so that the engineers deep below the surface are suitably warned.

The Rs 4,874-crore, 14.6-km long KMRC project is running over a year behind schedule due to various reasons , but work on the first part of the 8.84-km underground stretch is now on at a furious pace.

While work on the 750-metre east bound tunnel is already over, some 450 metres of the west bound tunnel has also been constructed. Subrata Gupta, KMRC's managing director is, therefore, confident of completing this portion at least by early July.

[Suncity]

Nice views of the elevated section and also underground section in this news clipping



The process of handing over EW Metro to Railways is still underway and hopefully will be completed soon. WB Govt will get a refund of the money spent so far. Question raised by reporter about whether the project will be delayed because of Indian Railways taking over.

[aam admi]

Originally Posted by NiladriG

"the transport secretary and the railway adviser to the state government are of the opinion that it would help avoid acquisition and therefore save money".

Bhagwan inhe sadbudhi de!!! god, please give them some wisdom!!

[Bombay2Calcutta]

Originally Posted by Suncity

Nice views of the elevated section and also underground section in this news clipping



The process of handing over EW Metro to Railways is still underway and hopefully will be completed soon. WB Govt will get a refund of the money spent so far. Question raised by reporter about whether the project will be delayed because of Indian Railways taking over.

The TMC state goverment will wash the hands off the project now .. but once it is complete will claim credit of the project

[NiladriG]

Originally Posted by Bombay2Calcutta

The TMC state goverment will wash the hands off the project now .. but once it is complete will claim credit of the project

The prestigious and one of the landmark project for Kolkata has been turned into a ping-pong ball by TMC for it's petty gains.

[soumalya747]

As per YAHOO Kolkata Metro is one of the Best Metro Service in the World.


Have a look of this.

http://in.finance.yahoo.com/photos/w...GY4ODg-;_ylv=3

[aam admi]

Its last in the list of 32 metros world over. I think almost all the metros world over are included in the list!!!!

[sidney_jec]

Originally Posted by aam admi

Its last in the list of 32 metros world over. I think almost all the metros world over are included in the list!!!!

it hasnt included Washington DC (which I know of and traveled) which is far better than Kol Metro (no offence). am pretty sure there are some others which havent been included. They havent given any criteria on what basis they have evaluated the transit systems. Its almost like a journalist was getting bored out of his minds and decided to "compile" a list of metros around the world (most probably from wikipedia)

[Abhishek901]

There are more than 100 metro systems in the world. See the list here.

[anamitra]

Kolkata Metro got 10 out of 10 in the 80s when it started its operations. With aging fleet and limited growth in operations it lost the charm.

Presently, Delhi metro will beat Kolkata Metro hands down in terms of service reliability, cleanliness and profit margin. We don't need to look at the entire world to find a better Metro system.

[Bombay2Calcutta]

I guess the KM is in this list in only because it was compiled by an Indian author. If it would have been compiled by an independent agency then it will not even figure in the top 50. As Anamitra rightly said with aging fleet and limited growth in operations it lost the charm....

[Samrat]

Originally Posted by Abhishek901

There are more than 100 metro systems in the world. See the list here.

This list also is not complete.

for instance Bonn and Cologne in Germany are left out. I have travelled
numerous times in Bonn(from Bad Godesburg in Bonn to Cologne, route 16)
Besides, there is another route No.66 in Bonn

The S bahn in Frankfurt not shown

Here they have included the railway systems other than metro in cities - like Chakra rail in Kolkata that's why the length shown against Kolkata is not 25 km only(see the number of stations - 96!)

[anamitra]

Originally Posted by Samrat

This list also is not complete.

for instance Bonn and Cologne in Germany are left out. I have travelled
numerous times in Bonn(from Bad Godesburg in Bonn to Cologne, route 16)
Besides, there is another route No.66 in Bonn

The S bahn in Frankfurt not shown

Here they have included the railway systems other than metro in cities - like Chakra rail in Kolkata that's why the length shown against Kolkata is not 25 km only(see the number of stations - 96!)

S-Bahn is not a metro service. It is suburban local service that can be compared to ER/SER EMUs.

U-Bahn is the Metro service in German speaking cities.

S-Bahn and U-Bahn coexist in many cities of Germany, Switzerland, Austria etc.

[devmoitra]

I feel the only reason why the Kolkata Metro is lagging behind DMRC is because of the ageing fleet .If we can have world class rakes in adequate numbers probably things will be very different .

[Bombay2Calcutta]

Originally Posted by Samrat

Here they have included the railway systems other than metro in cities - like Chakra rail in Kolkata that's why the length shown against Kolkata is not 25 km only(see the number of stations - 96!)

Not the Chakra rail ... the have included the list of all the metro stations as part of the new lines that are still under construction. Click on the no 96 and it will take you to the list.

[aam admi]

Originally Posted by anamitra

Kolkata Metro got 10 out of 10 in the 80s when it started its operations. With aging fleet and limited growth in operations it lost the charm.

Presently, Delhi metro will beat Kolkata Metro hands down in terms of service reliability, cleanliness and profit margin. We don't need to look at the entire world to find a better Metro system.

Lets accept the fact that Kolkata metro was always a failure from conceptual to operation stage. IR took the project without any expertise and never bothered to hire experts for the project. Financing for the project was not secured. Construction technology used were rudimentary causing emmense discomfort to public. Cut and cover was used for constructing tunnel when TBM was widely used worldover. Rooling stock was pathetic. Signalling system rudimentary. Telecom system almost non existent. This what we got by spending 12 times over the budget.

[India Rulz]

Originally Posted by devmoitra

I feel the only reason why the Kolkata Metro is lagging behind DMRC is because of the ageing fleet .If we can have world class rakes in adequate numbers probably things will be very different .

Not only that...look at the minimum price. Its Rs 4 in Kolkata, while around Rs 18 in Delhi. The fleet is not only aging and rusted, most of it is non-AC, making it really uncomfortable. They should increase the fare, and drag in better trains, with AC.

[skdubai]

I think the Delhi metro minimum fare is 8 and max is 30