Kolkata conducts a test run of the country’s first underwater metro!

Kolkata recently did a test run of two six coach metro trains under Hooghly river's underwater tunnel, which is the country's first-ever underwater Metro. If reports are to go by, the two six-coach trains were readied for trials as part of Kolkata East-West Metro Project, and underwent a trial run on the 4.8 kilometer stretch between Esplanade and Howrah Maidan.

Authorities decided to commence their operations without waiting for the completion of the much-delayed 2.5 kilometer Sealdah-Esplanade section.
Reportedly, the trials were conducted on the Kolkata Metro's Green Line, a 16.6 kilometer corridor between Sector V in east Kolkata and Howrah Maidan, across the river via Sealdah and Esplanade.

Authorities informed that parts of the line were already operational; however, the Sealdah-Esplanade section was facing delays. As such, the two trains for a trial run were conducted from the Salt Lake depot to Howrah Maidan through the east-bound tunnel between Sealdah and Esplanade, as officials were confident about the expedition.
Reports add that incomplete sections - between Sealdah and Esplanade - will use temporary tracks for the transportation of two trains to Howrah Maidan on Sunday.

Authorities also added that the trains will travel normally till Sealdah; from this point to Esplanade, they will be pushed by a battery-powered locomotive since the incomplete tunnel doesn't have electrified third rails yet. Then, from Esplanade to Howrah Maidan, the trains will travel normally again.

With this, Kolkata Metro added another feather in its cap as it was also the country’s first metro railway that started in Kolkata in 1984 and later in Delhi in 2002.