Metro tunnel to reach river in December

KOLKATA: The East-West Metro tunnel from Howrah Maidan is expected to reach the Hooghly riverbed by December, KMRC officials told Metro Railway general manager M C Chauhan on Saturday during an inspection of the site.
Tunneling for Phase-II of the E-W corridor started in Howrah on April 21. Work had been progressing smoothly, after some initial hiccups, till a crane came crashing down on a platform at Howrah station on Tuesday.Inquiry into this accidentis complete and engineers have been directed to take special precautions in the future.
"There are two tunnels, of which nearly 300m of the Up tunnel (to Kolkata) and about 100m of the Down tunnel (from Kolkata) has been completed. Both tunnels will reach the Hooghly riverbed by December-January. If everything progresses according to plan, the tunnel will cross the Hooghly and reach Mahakaran by July 2017," said Metro Railway spokesperson Indrani Banerjee.
Chauhan was briefed about the problems the project is facing on the Kolkata side. Officials said Metro still awaits clearance from ASI and ministry of defence. It was decided that henceforth traffic blocks will be taken whenever a crane operates near a railway station.