Services along Kolkata Metro's East-West corridor to remain suspended for four days from February 20

Services along the East-West corridor of Metro Railway, Kolkata, will remain suspended for four days from February 20 for testing the communication-based train control (CBTC) system on the entire Howrah Maidan to Salt Lake Sector V stretch, the Metro said in a statement.

The four-day suspension will be from February 20 to 23. It will be the second of the two back-to-back phases of the suspension of Metro services.

It is meant to test the efficacy of the CBTC system after completion of tunnelling work, between Esplanade and Sealdah stations, before the authorities start operation along the entire stretch by this year.

Services along the East-West corridor remained suspended for four days from February 13, for the full-proof trial of the state-of-the-art CBTC system.

On Tuesday, Metro Railway said, "There will be another complete traffic block from February 20 to 23 (four days, including Saturdays and Sundays), as announced earlier, for testing the Communication Based Train Control (CBTC) System on the entire East-West Metro Corridor (Green Line) from Howrah Maidan to Salt Lake Sector V.

"No services will be available during that period on the East-West corridor only. Blue Line, Purple Line and Orange Line will be fully operational during these days as per the original timetable," the statement said.

In Metro Railway terminology, 'traffic block' means suspension of train services. Currently, metro services are available along the corridor from Howrah Maidan to Esplanade and Sealdah to Sector-V.

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.

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