History
After independence, the transport problem of Kolkata drew the attention of the city planners, the State Government and also the Government of India. Efforts to solve the problem by augmenting the existing fleet of public transport vehicles barely touched the fringe of the problem as the roads account for only 4.2% of the surface area in Calcutta, compared to 25% in Delhi and even 30% in other cities.
With a view to finding an alternative solution, the Metropolitan Transport Project (Rlys) (i.e., Railways) was set up in 1973, which recommended a Mass Rapid Transit System. The MTP (Rlys) prepared a master plan in 1971 envisaging construction of five rapid-transit lines for the city of Kolkata, totalling a route length of 97.5 km. Of these, the highest priority was given to the busy North-South axis between Dum Dum and Kavi Subhash (New Garia) over a length of 25 km, and the work on this project was sanctioned on June 1, 1972. The foundation stone of the project was laid by Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister of India, on December 29, 1972.
At first, 5 lines were planned, but finally only 3 were selected for construction. Those were -
- Dum Dum - Mahanayak Uttam Kumar (Later extended to Kavi Subhash)
- Bidhannagar (Salt Lake Sector V) - Ramrajatala (Truncated till Howrah Maidan)
- Dakshineshwar - Thakurpukur (Route rechanged to Joka - BBD Bag)
Of these, only Line 1 (Dum Dum to Kavi Subhash) has been constructed.
Since the commencement of construction, the project had to contend with several hurdles, and actual construction of Line 1 started only in 1978. The first section opened between Esplanade & Bhowanipore (Now called Netaji Bhawan) by Sanjay Seal and Tapan Kumar Nath. There were no connections of this stretch with the two depots at Dum Dum & Tollygunge(now called Mahanayak Uttam Kumar), and the metro operated on only a single line. Two years later, line 1 extended up to Tollygunge at the southern end and made into a double line. Services from Dum Dum to Tollygunge started finally in 1995, and full services from Dum Dum to New Garia commenced on October 7, 2010.
Read more about this topic: Kolkata Metro
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“There is one great fact, characteristic of this our nineteenth century, a fact which no party dares deny. On the one hand, there have started into life industrial and scientific forces which no epoch of former human history had ever suspected. On the other hand, there exist symptoms of decay, far surpassing the horrors recorded of the latter times of the Roman empire. In our days everything seems pregnant with its contrary.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)
“It takes a great deal of history to produce a little literature.”
—Henry James (1843–1916)
“A great proportion of the inhabitants of the Cape are always thus abroad about their teaming on some ocean highway or other, and the history of one of their ordinary trips would cast the Argonautic expedition into the shade.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)