Kolkata, Jul 31 (PTI) Kolkata Metro on Thursday announced that services along the Howrah Maidan to Esplanade stretch of the East-West corridor would be suspended on August 3 for Automatic Train Operation (ATO) testing.

Normal train services, however, will be available between Dakshineswar and Shahid Khudiram stations of the North-South corridor on that day, a Metro spokesperson said.

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Trial runs along the Esplanade-Sealdah section of the East-West corridor had been conducted several times since January this year, and 'traffic blocks' were enforced in the Sealdah to Sector V stretch twice to check the efficacy of the signalling system.

The Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS) has given a clearance nod for the Sealdah-Esplanade section, which had been affected by subsidence of earth due to the bursting of an aquifer during tunneling work at Bowbazar in 2019.

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This pushed back the complete opening of the Howrah Maidan-Sector V corridor and hence, truncated train services are being run along Howrah Maidan-Esplanade and Sealdah-Sector V stretches.

There were speculations about the commencement of train services along the entire route by July, but Metro sources maintained that the final decision will be taken by the PMO.

(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)