Kolkata: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate three new metro stretches in Kolkata on August 22, a development being hailed as a transformative step in the city’s urban mobility. The new links—Sealdah to Esplanade, Ruby Crossing to Beleghata, and Noapara to the Airport—are expected to ease travel across the metropolis and mark a historic leap in connectivity just ahead of Durga Puja.
Among the highlights of the expansion is the long-awaited direct metro corridor to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport, giving the city its first rapid transit link to air travel. The Noapara to Jai Hind (Airport) stretch covers around seven kilometres and includes stations at Jessore Road and Dum Dum Cantonment, offering passengers a seamless connection to the terminal.
Equally significant is the completion of the East–West Metro corridor with the opening of the Sealdah–Esplanade stretch. This 2.6-kilometre section, delayed for years due to ground subsidence in Bowbazar, now enables uninterrupted travel from Howrah Maidan to Salt Lake Sector V. The line also features India’s first underwater metro tunnel beneath the Hooghly River, a project regarded as an engineering milestone.
The third addition, the Ruby Crossing to Beleghata extension, pushes the Orange Line further north by about 4.5 kilometres, linking southern and eastern suburbs more efficiently with the city’s central and northern zones. Together, the three routes will knit Kolkata’s Green, Orange, Yellow, and Blue lines into a more integrated network, offering faster and more flexible journeys for millions of commuters.
Launched just weeks before Durga Puja, the metro expansion is both timely and symbolic—preparing the city to handle the festival rush while also signalling a new phase in Kolkata’s modernization. Beyond easing daily commutes, the corridors are expected to stimulate economic activity, reduce road congestion, and enhance the overall quality of urban life.
With these additions, Kolkata Metro achieves a major milestone, stepping into a new era where travel from IT hubs to business centres, from railway stations to the airport, will be faster, smoother, and more reliable than ever before.
