We begin with what appears to be the best map of the existing Kolkata Metro which one can find from regular websites:
http://www.mapsofindia.com/maps/westbengal/kolkata-metro-map.html
Even this has some errors in station names, but at least it shows all the stations existing today and their connections with the regular railway system.
This is the corrected list of stations along with distances:
The rate of progress was painfully slow even by the standards of infrastructure projects in India. This will be apparent from this table:
| Extension date | Terminals | Length | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 24 October 1984 | Esplanade | Bhowanipore | 3.40 kilometers (2.11 mi) |
| 12 November 1984 | Dum Dum | Belgachhia | 2.15 kilometers (1.34 mi) |
| 29 April 1986 | Bhowanipur (now Netaji Bhaban) | Tollygunge (now Mahanayak Uttam Kumar) | 4.24 kilometers (2.63 mi) |
| 13 August 1994 | Belgachhia | Shyambazar | 1.63 kilometers (1.01 mi) |
| 2 October 1994 | Esplanade | Chandni Chowk | 0.71 kilometers (0.44 mi) |
| 19 February 1995 | Shyambazar | Girish Park | 1.92 kilometers (1.19 mi) |
| 19 February 1995 | Chandni Chowk | Central | 0.60 kilometers (0.37 mi) |
| 27 September 1995 | Central | Girish Park | 1.80 kilometers (1.12 mi) |
| 22 August 2009 | Tollygunge (Mahanayak Uttam Kumar) | Garia Bazar (now Kavi Nazrul) | 5.85 kilometers (3.64 mi) |
| 7 October 2010 | Garia Bazar (now Kavi Nazrul) | New Garia (now Kavi Subhash) | 3.00 kilometers (1.86 mi) |
| 10 July 2013 | Dum Dum | Noapara | 2.09 kilometers (1.30 mi) |
| Total | Noapara | New Garia (now Kavi Subhash) | 27.39 kilometers (17.02 mi) |
Construction started in earnest in 1978 and the short section from Esplanade to Bhowanipore / Netaji Bhawan was opened in 1984. It was another 11 years before the familiar Dum Dum- Tollygunge route was fully opened. Extensions started again in the 2000s and the line extended downwards to Kavi Subhash (New Garia) and upwards to Noapara by 2013.
The line has the usual IR broad gauge and the 750 V third rail system which the suicidal may find convenient, while the Delhi Metro has overhead 25 KV lines (which become overhead third rails in tunnels). Former tennis champion Premjit Lal was one who reportedly attempted suicide on the Metro in 1992 and ended up as a cripple who survived another 15 years or so.
Once the route was fully open in 1995, it did make a significant difference to the traffic jams and vehicular pollution on the main north-south axis in Central Kolkata, while not making a difference to the rest of the city. Much later air-conditioned rakes added to passenger comfort.
The Kolkata Metro was recently formally declared the 17th zone of the Indian Railways, while the Konkan Railway remains a corporation which is nominally not under IR but is part of it for operational purposes.
The story of Line 1 is not over yet. Construction of the northward extension to Baranagar and Dakhineswar is in full swing. As for Lines 2 to 6….well, that is another story.
A popular grouse is the mass renaming of stations in the Trinamool era. There had some renamings earlier such as Bhowanipore to Netaji Bhawan. The southward extension from Tollygunge (sorry, Mahanayak Uttam Kumar) had stations with logical names such as Kudghat, Bansdroni etc. which corresponded to the actual names of the localities. Now see what happened in Kolkata Metro . The station now known as Shahid Khudiram was initially planned as Pranab Nagar and became Birji before getting its present name. All the stations south of Tollygunge now have names which have no obvious connection with the names of the localities. That is why announcements and display boards have to clearly specify “Netaji station serving Kudghat”. Locals and visitors alike will get confused with two stations named after Netaji and two more after Rabindranath Tagore.
The terminus of Kavi Subhash is adjacent to the New Garia station on the regular railway. There is a similar arrangement at Dum Dum (which has thankfully not been renamed). A sort of connection exists between Rabindra Sarovar metro station and the obscure station of Tollygunge on the railway, which is a few hundred metres away, though that station is itself not as well connected as the other two.
So much for Line 1. There are now big plans for lines 2 to 6, which deserve a post by themselves.
abn397 