Kolkata: India's First Under-River Metro Tunnel Set for Inauguration on THIS Date | Details Here

Kolkata: In a massive push to city's transport infrastructure, India's first under-river metro tunnel built in Kolkata will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 6, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Saturday.

In an official statement to news agency PTI, Vaishnaw further said though the work on the Kolkata Metro started in the 1970s, the progress made in the last 10 years of the Modi government was much more than the 40 years before that.

"That's the focus the prime minister puts on getting infrastructure in place and building a foundation for a country which will be a developed nation by 2047," he said.

The work on Kolkata Metro progressed in several phases. In the current phase, the under-river tunnel has been built for the city's East-West metro corridor. 

Besides being India’s first under-river metro tunnel, the upcoming East-West Metro stretch linking Kolkata with Howrah will feature another engineering marvel.

It will feature country’s deepest ventilation-evacuation shaft, which equals a 15-storey building. Passengers would have to climb the entire height (273 steps) of the shaft, which has been built near the Brabourne Road flyover, to be evacuated out.