India News | Kolkata Metro Announces Suspension of Services on East-West Corridor Every Sunday

Kolkata, Mar 19 (PTI) Metro Railway, Kolkata, on Wednesday announced the suspension of services on the entire East-West Metro corridor (Green Line) every Sunday from March 23 onwards to facilitate testing of the Communication-Based Train Control (CBTC) system.

In a statement, Metro authorities said no services will be available on the Howrah Maidan–Salt Lake Sector V corridor on Sundays until further notice.

Also Read | Amit Shah Counters TMC MP Saket Gokhale in Rajya Sabha Says 'I Am Not Here With Anyone's Mercy, I Have Won Elections 7 Times' (Watch Video).

Earlier, Metro services along the East-West corridor were suspended on March 8 and 9 for CBTC system testing.

The two-day suspension was the third since February as part of efforts to assess the efficacy of the signalling and communication system on the Howrah Maidan–Salt Lake Sector V stretch.

Also Read | 'Kavach 4.0', India's Cutting-Edge Automatic Train Protection, To Equip 10,000 Locomotives in the Next Phase, Says Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.

The previous suspensions took place from February 13 to 16 and February 20 to 23.

"Metro will implement a complete traffic block every Sunday from March 23 to conduct CBTC system testing along the entire East-West Metro corridor (Green Line) from Howrah Maidan to Salt Lake Sector V," a spokesperson said.

In Metro Rail parlance, a 'traffic block' means suspension of train services.

The CBTC system is being checked after the completion of tunnelling work between Esplanade and Sealdah stations before authorities mull to start operations along the entire stretch by this year.

At present, trains run along two disjointed sections from Sector 5 to Sealdah, and Esplanade to Howrah Maidan.

Due to the cave-in during tunnelling work at Bowbazar along the Esplanade-Sealdah stretch and seepage of underground water in September 2019 as the boring machine hit an aquifer and at least two more similar incidents in subsequent years, services could not commence along the 2.5-km-long Esplanade-Sealdah stretch of the 16.6-km-long East-West corridor.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)