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 The
burgeoning transport problem of Kolkata drew the attention of the
city planners, the State Government and also the Government of India.
It was soon realised that something had to be done and done fast to
cope up with the situation. It was Dr. B.C. Roy, the then Chief Minister
of West Bengal, who for the first time conceived the idea in 1949
of building an Underground Railway for Kolkata to solve the problems
to some extent. A survey was done by a team of French experts but
nothing concrete came out. Efforts made to solve the problem by augmenting
the existing fleet of public transport vehicles barely touched the
fringe of the problem as the roads account for only 4.2% of the surface
area in Calcutta as compared to 25% in Delhi and even 30% in other
cities. With a view to finding out an alternative solution to alleviate
the suffering of the Kolkatans, the Metropolitan Transport Project
(Rlys) was set up in 1969. After detailed studies, the MTP (Rlys)
came to the conclusion  that
there was no other alternative but to construct a Mass Rapid Transit
System. The MTP (Rlys) had prepared a Master Plan in 1971 envisaging
construction of five rapid transit lines for the city of Kolkata ,
totalling to a route length of 97.5km. Of these, the highest priority
was given to the busy North-South axis between Dum Dum and Tollygunge
over a length of 16.45 km and the work on this project was sanctioned
on 1.6.72. The foundation stone of the project was laid by Smt. Indira
Gandhi, the then Prime Minister of India, on December 29, 1972 and
the construction work started in 1973-74.
Since the commencement of construction, the project had to contend
with several problems such as non-availability of sufficient funds
till 1977-78, shifting of underground utilities, court injunctions,
irregular supply of vital materials and others. But overcoming innumerable
hurdles and crossing all barriers of disbelief, Calcutta Metro, India's
first and Asia's fifth, became a reality on OCTOBER 24, 1984 with
the commissioning of partial commercial service covering a distance
of 3.40 km with five stations between Esplanade and Bhowanipur. This
was quickly followed by commuter services on another 2.15 km stretch
in the north between Dum Dum and Belgachia on NOVERMBER 12, 1984.
The commuter service was extended upto Tollygunge on  APRIL
29, 1986 covering a further distance of 4.24 km making the service
available over an overall distance of 9.79 km and covering 11 stations.
However, the services on the north section were suspended w.e.f. 26.10.92
as this isolated small section was not attractive to commuters. After
a gap of over eight years, the 1.62 km Belgachia-Shyambazar section,
along with Dum Dum -Belgachia stretch, was opened on AUGUST 13,1994.
Another 0.71 km stretch from Esplanade to Chandni Chowk was commissioned
shortly thereafter, on OCTOBER 2, 1994. The Shyambazar-Shovabazar-Girish
Park (1.93 km) and Chandni Chowk-Central (0.60 km) sections were opened
on FEBRUARY 19, 1995. Services on the entire stretch of Metro were
introduced from September 27, 1995 by bridging the vital gap of 1.80
km in the middle. A dream thus came true. |
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