The Phoolbagan station of Kolkata’s East-West Metro, which was inaugurated by Union railways minister Piyush Goyal on Sunday, began functioning from 8 am on Monday.
Authorities said that this would be a major boost for the city’s infrastructure because the Phoolbagan metro station is located close to the Sealdah railway station which caters to more than a million passengers every day and is one of the busiest railway stations in India. Local trains connect Kolkata with the suburban areas.
“Once complete, the East-West Metro will connect two of India’s busiest railway stations – Howrah and Sealdah. With the Phoolbagan station operational, the passenger count of the East-West metro corridor will rise significantly as it is located less than 2.5 km from Sealdah station, which connects Kolkata with the suburban areas and other districts,” said a metro railway official.
Phoolbagan is the first underground station in the East-West metro to be commissioned.
Travel time from Phoolbagan to the IT hub in Salt Lake’s Sector V will be 16 minutes. By road it takes an hour.
The station has platform screen doors, ticket vending machines and toilets
While the North-South metro came into being in 1984 and was India’s first metro rail, the East-West metro started running in February 2020.
Phoolbagan will increase the passenger count of East-West metro and help lakhs of people in the coming days as it is located close to Sealdah station. Local train services from Sealdah haven’t resumed yet.
The entire 16.5 km of the East-Westmetro is expected to be completed by the end of 2021.
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.