KOLKATAÂ (Metro Rail News): On Tuesday, the Calcutta High Court allowed the resumption of tunnel-boring work for the Kolkata East-West Metro corridor, which resumed after an aquifer burst in last year August leading to severe ground subsidence and the collapse of buildings. Almost 700 residents had to be evacuated after cracks appeared.
Accepting a suggestion by IIT-Madras, the court allowed the Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation, the executing agency for the project, to resume work between Esplanade and Sealdah stations in Bowbazar area of central Kolkata, in consultation with the institute. The division bench comprising Chief Justice of Calcutta high court TBN Radhakrishnan and Justice Arijit Banerjee had in September ordered the pause of tunnelling work till further announcement.
3 months later, the Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation, in view of a report made by its expert committee, moved the court asking its permission to restart the work. On a prayer through an NGO to get the expert committee report vetted by an independent agency, the KMRC then requested IIT-Madras to analyse its findings. The institute report stated that tunnelling work could be continued.
KMRC MD Manas Sarkar stated that this is a new beginning for us. But you could call it a symbolic start. It might take another week for the TBM to burrow steadily. For now, the experts will closely watch how the refurbished machine behaves. They may start it and then stop it again, study the parameters and so on.
Yet, truncated services among Sector-V in Salt Lake to Yuva Bharati Krirangan stadium are scheduled to commence on February 13.
