Railway Board Chairman and CEO Jaya Varma Sinha on Tuesday inspected the Howrah Maidan to Esplanade stretch of East West Metro, travelling in a train through the country's first of its kind tunnel under the River Hooghly, an official said.

She inspected passenger amenities, safety and security measures that are going to be adopted for it.

The chairman travelled from Howrah Maidan station to Esplanade station in a train under River Hooghly, the Kolkata Metro official said.

Sinha held a detailed discussion on the project with Metro Railway General Manager P Uday Kumar Reddy and other senior officials of Metro and Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (KMRCL), the executing agency of the East West project.

She was apprised of the progress of the project by the officials.

The chairman instructed that all passenger safety measures be ensured before commissioning of this stretch, the official said.

The East West Metro project connects Sector V in Salt Lake, West Bengal’s IT hub, with Howrah Maidan, a distance of 16.55 km. Of that, a 9.30 km stretch between Sector V and Sealdah is now operational.

Completion of the portion between Sealdah and Esplanade has been delayed owing to accidents at Bowbazar area in central Kolkata during tunnelling work.

An aquifer burst in that area on August 31, 2019, led to severe ground subsidence and the collapse of a number of buildings. Two more water leakage incidents at the same site in 2022 have also delayed completion of the project.

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