Sarod maestro Amjad Ali Khan climbs down the escalator to the platform level of the Esplanade Metro station in 1988 to take a joyride on the train. Kolkata Metro turned 40 on Thursday, October 24, 2024. On the eventful day in 1984, when the first train rolled out of Esplanade station, it had travelled a mere 3.4km to Bhowanipore
Classical sarod player Ustad Amjad Ali Khan (extreme right) travels on the Calcutta Metro, as it was then known, in 1988. Earlier, on December 29 in 1972, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had laid the foundation for the project. That was 23 years after a French team conducted a study on the feasibility of an underground transport system in Calcutta
Sarod virtuoso Ali Akbar Khan (second from right) seated in the Calcutta Metro in 1987. The approximate daily ridership around that time was around 43,244 against an approximated 6-lakh-plus in the present day
Former Union railway minister Mamata Banerjee visits Metro work at Dum Dum in 2000. Around that time, she had announced that the allocation to the Calcutta Metro Railway Project from Tollygunge to Garia would be increased to ensure early completion