Rail budget promises smooth Metro services for Kolkata

KOLKATA: If Mamata Banerjee’s pre-poll Railway Budget was a bonanza of promises for Kolkata, Dinesh Trivedi’s budget is pragmatic.
In his budget speech, Trivedi expressed his satisfaction over the progress of extension of Metro routes from Dum Dum to Baranagar, from Noapara to Barasat via Bimanbandar (Airport), Baranagar to Barrackpore and Dakshineswar, Airport to New Garia via Rajarhat and Joka to BBD Bag via Majerhat.“Once the entire Metro network is complete, 5 million commuters can avail of the services daily. Now only five lakh commuters avail it,” said a Metro railway official. Trivedi also added 50 more services to the existing 270 services of Garia-Dum Dum Metro.
A year earlier, Mamata Banerjee dared to dream. She proposed Metro services be extended by 65km so that even a Kalyani resident can reach the heart of the city in an hour. She said the residents of Diamond Harbour would also be able to avail of the facility.
As part of Metro extension from Joka to Tollygunge, Trivedi proposed the commissioning of first leg of the extension from Joka-IIM to Diamond Park. He said the survey report for extension of Metro railway from Barrackpore to Kalyani was being finalized and work will be taken up in due course. Besides, extension of circular railway from Remount Road to Santoshpur via Garden Reach, Metiabruz has also been taken up.
However, as far as metropolitan rail transit system is concerned, Trivedi’s budget vision is confined to the eastern bank of the Hooghly. His budget speech had no mention of Metro expansion on the western part of the river. “Mamata Banerjee, in her previous budget, wanted to extend the Metro to Howrah and Hooghly . The East-West Metro will link Kolkata with Howrah. If it is extended from Howrah to Serampore, the service will span across the Kolkata metropolitan area. It will not take more than 40 minutes to reach BBD Bag from Serampore,” said former chief traffic and transportation engineer B K Sadhu.
As far as the suburban railway system is concerned, there was a proposal for the fourth terminal station at Majerhat after Howrah, Sealdah and Chitpore (Kolkata) in Mamata’s budget. However, in this budget, there was no mention about developing Majerhat as a terminal station.
“While in Mamata’s budget the Metro transit proposals sounded ambitious, in Trivedi’s budget, the proposals seemed feasible. If Delhi Metro Railway Corporation can run trains up to Noida and Gurgaon and plan to extend up to Faridabad, we can of course connect Kalyani. It will ease the pressure on suburban trains,” said a former Railway Board official.
Full Coverage on Budget 2012: Budget 2012, Rail Budget 2012, Pre Budget 2012, Budget News 2012