By Our Correspondent
NEW DELHI/KOLKATA: Union Minister of Railways and Commerce & Industry, Piyush Goyal, inaugurated Phoolbagan Metro station of East-West Metro on Sunday. Piyush Goyal also flagged off the first train from the newly inaugurated Phoolbgan station through video link. In his address, congratulating all for taking extra initiative to complete the work of Phoolbagan station in the midst of COVID-19 pandemic, Goyal said that this extension of services from Salt Lake Stadium to Phoolbagan (a stretch of 1.665 kms) will be a great help for the commuters more so because of its proximity to Sealdah station. Terming this as a gift for Durga Puja, he also said that Metro provides the safest, cleanest and fastest transportation system in Kolkata.
He has further reassured that if land is made available and encroachments are removed then funds won’t be a constraint for implementing any Railway project.Babul Supriyo, Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change congratulated Hon’ble Minister of Railways and Commerce & Industry for taking the initiative to commission this modern and beautiful Phoolbagan Metro station so early. He expressed his hope that in the coming days people will be able to commute to and from Sealdah station easily due to this extension of East-West Metro.
Debasree Chaudhuri, Minister of State for Women and Child Development was also present in this programme and expressed her happiness for commissioning of Phoolbagan station.Manoj Joshi, General Manager, Metro Railway, in his inaugural address spoke about how the opening of this station will facilitate Metro commuters to go to the IT Hub in Salt Lake Sector-V, International Bus Terminal and Mela Ground in Karunamoyee, important Government offices at Central Park and the famous Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan (Salt Lake Stadium).
Total length of this project is 16.5 kms.and the total estimated project cost is Rs. 8574.98 Cr. This will connect Howrah on the West bank of the river Hooghly with Salt Lake City on its East bank. The first-phase of the East-West Metro from Salt Lake Stadium to Salt Lake Sector V was inaugurated by Goyal on 13th February, 2020.
Commercial services to and from Phoolbagan station will start from 05.10.2020 (Monday). Daily 48 services will run from 08:00 hrs to 19:50 hrs from Salt Lake Sector-V to Phoolbagan at 30 minutes interval. The last service will start from Salt Lake Sector-V and Phoolbagan stations at 19:30 hrs. There will be no service on Sunday.
