KOLKATA: With the aim of giving a major boost to the city’s infrastructure, Piyush Goyal, Minister of Railways, Government of India, inaugurated the Phoolbagan station of Kolkata’s East-West Metro. The Phoolbagan station is located close to the Sealdah railway station which caters to more than a million passengers daily and is one of the busiest railways stations in India.
According to an official of the Kolkata metro, the East-West metro, when completed, will connect one of India’s busiest railway stations – Howrah and Sealdah. As the Sealdah station connects Kolkata with other suburban areas, inauguration of the Phoolbagan station less than 2.5 kilometres away from it will increase the passenger count of the East-West metro corridor. Phoolbagan is also be the first underground metro station of the particular metro corridor.
After resumption of metro services from September 14, even though the North-South metro, which has become the city’s lifeline over the years is getting more than 50,000 passengers, the East-West corridor is getting less than 200 passengers per day. Authorities had said that the count would rise once Phoolbagan becomes operational and local train services resume at Sealdah.
The entire 16.5 km of the East-West metro is expected to be completed by the end of 2021.