Kolkata (Metro Rail News): Construction work on the Purple Line beyond Majerhat station has got a major boost in recent times. The Purple Line of Kolkata Metro, which stretches from Joka to Esplanade, is now operational from Joka to Majerhat. Efforts have been made to extend it further as per the plan and reach the heart of the city to connect it with the Blue Line as well as the Green Line. In order to achieve this, construction work of Mominpur (Excl.) to the Esplanade stretch of this Corridor has been going on in that direction. A Work Order for the construction of this stretch has already been issued to M/s. Larsen & Toubro in last July.
Mominpur-Esplanade Section
After Mominpur, this stretch will go underground, and four stations, namely, Khidderpore, Victoria, Park Street and Esplanade, will be underground stations. All these stations will be modern, state-of-the-art stations replete with all passenger amenities. Executing agency Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL) is bringing two Tunnel Boring Machines (TBM) to burrow the tunnels for this stretch from Germany. These TBMs are expected to arrive in Kolkata in January 2025 and, after assembling, will begin their tunnelling work from March 2025.
Prior to that, the preparatory work to construct the launching shaft has been going on. The construction of the D-Wall of this launching shaft started on 27.06.2024 at St. Thomas School premises at Khidderpore. The length of this D-Wall will be 65 metres and this construction is expected to be over within two months. This is a major boost for this project after overcoming a lot of administrative and legal problems.
Apart from that, the casting work of the tunnel segments has also been started at the casting yard at Sarkarpool in Maheshtala. The width of each segment which will be used in the tunnels is 1.40 metres. Six such segments will be required to form an one complete ring with an inner diameter of 5.80 metres and a width of 1.40 metres. All these pre-cast segments will be brought to the site before the tunnelling work begins. The TBM machines, immediately after boring the tunnels, will fix the lining with these pre-cast segments under the ground to give it a final shape.
