বাংলায় পড়ুন
If things go according to plan, by February 2020 commuting from north to south end of the city would be done in a few minutes and from both ends reaching the central business district of the city too would be a lot easier. The reason – the Noapara-Dakshineswar Metro Rail project will be functional by then.
At present about 80 percent of the work of this project is complete. An amount of Rs 65 crore has been allocated in the interim budget of 2019-20. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, while she was the Rail Minister had announced several Metro Rail projects to connect the city with the suburbs. The Noapara-Dakshineswar project is one of those. The Dum Dum-Noapara Metro Rail route has been active for a few years now. Metro Rail sources said that work along the 4 km route is near completion. The next station after Noapara would be Baranagar and the station after that is Dakshineswar.
It was found out that officials have the instruction to complete the work of the route by the end of this year. After completion, certain certification would be needed before train services on this route can be initiated.
Officials said that once this route is thrown open, citizens of North 24 Parganas, Howrah and Hooghly districts would be able to reach Kolkata with ease. At present, although Metro service is available till Noapara, lack of modes of transport at Noapara leads to fewer takers from this station. Instead, people opt for Sealdah Mainline trains or other buses along this route. Experts believe with the extended route till Dakshineswar, there will be more commuters which will lead to better and more means of transport at Noapara because right beside the under-construction Baranagar station there are buses available which shuttle between Baranagar and Sealdah.
Presently, owing to fewer commuters to Noapara, all Dum Dum bound trains are not run up to Noapara. Metro officials said that after every three trains which reach Dum Dum, one is run up to Noapara. Once the route is extended to Dakshineswar, at least alternate trains would be run up to there.
Metro officials further said that for trains to switch from Up line to Down line at Dakshineswar station, ‘V-Siding’ is has been used instead of the conventional ‘Y-siding’, chiefly because of lack of space at Dakshineswar station.
