Another year has arrived in a city dotted with half-built Metro tracks and broken roads, overcrowded hospitals and an often not-so-happy international airport.
Metro took stock of things that there could be to look forward to, from new train lines to hospitals, better roads to proper drainage and, a less chaotic airport. And also the pipe dreams.
Metro connectivity
Several new areas in and around the city should have Metro connectivity in 2024. After numerous delays, the East-West line connecting Salt Lake Sector V and Howrah Maidan is likely to be fully operational. But that is the only Metro corridor under construction that is nearing completion.
The other projects, also bogged down by multiple bottlenecks, are only likely to see some progress.
East-West Metro (Green Line): At the start of 2023, Metro Railway had said that the full stretch of the East-West line, between Howrah Maidan and Sector V, would be operational by June 2024.
A spokesperson for the Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation, the implementing agency of the 16.5km corridor, said on Monday that the target has not changed.
But, the carrier had also said that a truncated stretch of the line, between Howrah Maidan and Esplanade, would be operational by the end of 2023. That did not happen.
Construction on the stretch between Esplanade and Sealdah, more specifically at Bowbazar, which has so far proved a major challenge, is nearing completion, said the official. Bowbazar has seen three incidents of water seepage and subsidence since 2019.
Pipe dream
- New Garia-airport corridor (Orange Line): The 32km corridor from New Garia to the airport will be Kolkata’s longest Metro line once ready. But that seems a distant future.
A truncated 5.4km stretch between New Garia and Ruby, the first phase of the project, received a nod from the commissioner of railway safety in February last year. It has yet to see commercial runs.
Metro general manager P. Uday Kumar Reddy said the New Garia-Ruby stretch should be operational by March 2024.
“Some signalling work is pending. It should be completed soon,” he said.
Land logjams have been delaying the project since it started in 2011. The Orange Line was supposed to have been extended till Salt Lake Sector V by the end of October last year.
Reddy said the Sector V extension is now unlikely before December 2024. The line was supposed to have been extended till City Centre II in December 2024. But that is virtually impossible now, said sources in the carrier.
The extension till City Centre II will take at least six months from when the line reaches Sector V, said another official.
Land logjams in New Town and along VIP Road are major challenges in the 3.5km stretch between City Centre II and the airport.
“A realistic estimation of when the line would reach the airport can only be given once it reaches City Centre II,” said the official.
- Noapara-Barasat corridor (Yellow Line): The 7.04km Noapara-airport stretch of the corridor missed an October 2023 deadline.
Reddy said the revised target is December 2024. Sources in the carrier said encroachments — mostly stalls and shanties under the elevated Circular Railway tracks between Jessore Road and Dum Dum Cantonment — are delaying the project.
“We are in the middle of talks with the state government. Work will gather pace after we get the land,” said a Metro official.
The construction of the airport station is in its final stages. Metro officials said they want to make the airport station operational by the middle of June.
- Joka-Esplanade (Purple Line): The truncated Joka-Taratala stretch has been operational since the start of 2023. An extension till Majerhat missed an October 2023 deadline. Reddy said the Majerhat extension was delayed because of pending signalling work, like in the New Garia-Ruby section.
Airport
ATC tower: The new air traffic control tower is scheduled to become partially operational by April.
A air traffic services complex with a separate ATC tower, a Rs 470crore project, is coming up at the airport for better communication, navigation and surveillance of flights. The 11-storey ATC tower is 184ft tall, compared with the existing one which is 112ft tall.
A six-storeyed building, which has come up adjacent to the ATC tower being built, will house a unit of the Indian Air Force, the airport Met office, a communication navigation and surveillance unit and the air traffic management wing.
“The construction is complete and the buildings are likely to be handed to us for installation of equipment soon,” said an official at the airport. “However, the work for procuring and installing equipment will not be over this year.”
So, the ATC tower will become partially operational with existing equipment. Airport sources said the new tower could be operational for a few hours every day initially.
“Since the tower is taller than the existing one, it will help in better surveillance of flights landing and taking off,” the official said. “Also, with increased space, more ATC personnel can be deployed.”
Terminal expansion: Expansion of the existing integrated terminal is scheduled to start this year. The building can handle 26 million passengers annually. Post-expansion, it can handle 2 million additional passengers.
“The expansion will happen on the international side. There will more passenger area in the departure and arrival areas. More space will be created in the security check area, too,” said a senior airport official.
Pipe dream
- The construction of another terminal building, which was to begin before the Covid pandemic, will not start this year.
VIP cars will continue to remain parked on the kerbside of the terminal building’s arrival area and fliers will struggle to board their vehicles.
The authorities are planning a separate exit for VIPs, following the practice at the Delhi airport, so that their cars are not parked on the kerbside of the terminal building. But that will not happen unless the new building comes up.
- Direct flights to Europe still elude the city. “There is no word from any airline about the Europe connectivity till now,” said an airport official.
Bridges and flyovers
The CMDA will complete the health audit of nine bridges and flyovers. An official said one of the bridges whose health studies will be done is Ambedkar Bridge, a part of EM Bypass that stands over a canal near Science City. The Dhana Dhanya Bridge in Alipore and a bridge near Doighat in the port area will also be part of the survey.
The demolition of a bridge in Chitpore, which has been in poor condition for years, is likely to start in a few months. The engineering company that pulled down the incomplete Vivekananda Road flyover has been selected to raze the Chitpore bridge.
“Some families stay under the bridge. Their relocation is being planned. Once that is done, the demolition will start,” said an official.
A skywalk connecting SP Mukherjee Road and Kalighat temple is likely to be ready this year. An official in the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), which is executing the project, said they have set an April deadline for the skywalk.
Pipe dream
A flyover between New Town and Metropolitan on EM Bypass, whose planning is complete, is awaiting financial approval from the state government. The flyover promises to cut down the travel time to and from New Town and also reduce the traffic in Salt Lake.
“The detailed project report is complete. Construction will start only after the finance department gives its approval,” said a state government official.
Roads and drainage
The stretch of SP Mukherjee Road, between the Hazra crossing and the Tollygunge rail bridge, will be overhauled.
A KMC engineer said the bed of the road — the layers underlying the bituminous surface — will be done afresh. The road has innumerable undulations and patchwork repairs led to more such undulations.
A water supply line under the road is being repaired. “We will start repairs once the water supply work is done,” said the engineer. Only the road repairs will cost Rs 17 crore, said the engineer.
The KMC is expected to receive this year Rs 100 crore as the first of the five five such instalments from the National Disaster Management Authority. The entire corpus will be released over five years.
The money will be used to improve the drainage system in the city and reduce the risk of flooding. Building more drainage pumping stations, upgrading some old ones and setting up retention tanks (to store rainwater) are among the projects to be undertaken with the grant.
The KMC will start a Rs 653-crore project to stop the draining of liquid waste into Tolly’s Nullah. The money will be used to set up three sewage treatment plants as part of the National Mission for Clean Ganga-funded project.
The drainage lines that discharge untreated sewage into Tolly’s Nullah directly will be diverted to these treatment plants. The plants will reduce the pollutants in the sewage and make it fit for discharge into the canal, which drains into the Hooghly.
Healthcare
Several healthcare groups are either building new hospitals or adding beds to their existing ones.
The Narayana Health group, headed by Devi Shetty, will build a 1,000-bed hospital in the city.
“In a few months, we will start construction of the hospital, which will have all specialties, robotics and organ transplant like liver, lung, heart, among others. There are plans for a postgraduate institute where research will be conducted,” said R. Venkatesh, group COO.
He said construction will start for the first phase, which will have 300 beds. Land is likely to be allocated soon by the state government for the Rs 1,000-crore project.
The group will add 150 beds at Narayana Superspecialty Hospital in Howrah, making it a 500-bed set-up. The new beds will be operational by February.
Belle Vue Clinic is planning to start the construction of a 168-bed hospital in New Town in March. “It will be a Rs 125-crore project,” said Pradip Tondon, CEO of Belle Vue.
“Another 400-bed hospital will be built on a separate piece of land in New Town. Construction will start in 2025.”
At Peerless Hospital, the construction of a 11-storeyed building, which will house oncology and other super-specialites, will be over this year.
“The Rs 450-crore project will see an addition of 150 beds but more importantly, it will have state-of-art equipment, particularly for cancer treatment,” said Sudipta Mitra, chief executive at Peerless Hospital.
Woodlands Multispeciality Hospital is also undergoing expansion. “We have taken up an expansion project to add 100 beds on our existing premises. The expansion will take two more years. A comprehensive cancer facility with dedicated beds, advanced radiotherapy and increased outpatient clinical areas are part of the project. Other super-specialities will also come up,” said Rupali Basu, managing director & CEO, Woodlands Multispeciality Hospital Ltd.
The estimated cost of the project is around Rs 300 crore.
Pipe dream
The state government is not expanding healthcare infrastructure. An official said there is no plan to build more hospitals in and around the city.
“We will enhance the number of medical education seats across Bengal,” said the official.