The Joka-Esplanade Metro Corridor, which had been facing a major obstacle due to the Indian Army’s unwillingness to allow the construction of the Esplanade Station at B C Roy Market, is expected to see some progress soon. There is now a fresh proposal to construct the Esplanade station of this corridor under Manohardas Tarag at Esplanade. To enable the construction, the city metro is now considering draining of the Manohardas Tarag at Esplanade to pave the way for construction of tunnels below it with the ‘Cut and Cover’ method. The state Public Works Department is said to have handed over the water body to RVNL for this project.

According to the city metro authorities, once the construction of the station is complete, the water body would be reinstated. Simultaneously, for the construction of Esplanade Metro station, Kolkata Mounted Police Paddock would be relocated temporarily to Saheed Minar Maidan. The RVNL is said to have received the required no objection certificate from the Defence authorities. Likewise, for construction of the Park Street station of the corridor, it has also been proposed to temporarily shift the Calcutta Police Club, Calcutta Kennel Club and Rajasthan Club outside the construction zone. For the normal operation of these clubs during the construction period, porta-type containers in the adjacent vacant land would be provided by the authorities.

According to the Kolkata Metro railway, the RVNL has installed five such containers on the adjacent vacant land at Park Street while the remaining are to be installed soon. At the other end of the project at Kidderpore, the implementing agency of the JokaEsplanade Metro Corridor, Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL), is constructing a launching shaft at St. Thomas School as a preparatory measure to kick off tunneling. The Joka-B.B.D. Bagh metro includes both stretches mounted on viaducts and underground. While one stretch with viaduct-mounted tracks is operational till Majerhat, the remaining leg from Mominpur to Esplanade is to run underground.

According to the city metro authorities, for taking up construction work on this stretch, tunnel boring machine (TBM) is to be used to burrow the tunnels. For tunnelling the first stretch from Kidderpore to Victoria station, the TBM will start working from inside St. Thomas School premises at Khidderpore. The work however, needed a launching shaft, the construction of which is being done at St. Thomas School by the RVNL. The TBM is to start boring the underground tunnels once this work is completed.