(THE GIST OF PIB) India's First Under-River Metro Tunnel

(MARCH-2024)

Prime Minister recently inaugurated a metro train service in Kolkata, marking the opening of India’s first under-river metro tunnel.

It is a part of Kolkata Metro’s East-West Corridor.
It passes under the Hooghly River and forms part of section from Howrah Maidan to Esplanade.
The stretch also has the deepest metro station in the country, the Howrah Maidan station, at 32 metres below ground level.

The Hooghly River, also known as the Bhagirathi-Hoogly and Kati-Ganga Rivers, is one of the significant rivers in West Bengal. It is a distributary or arm of the Ganges River.
It is formed in Murshidabad, where the Ganga splits into two parts, while the part flowing through Bangladesh is called the Padma.
The Hooghly River is silted up above Kolkata, and the river flows to the west and south to the estuary of Rupnarayan and then south and southwest to enter the Bay of Bengal through a 32-kilometer-wide estuary.
The Hooghly’s majority of water comes from the Farakka Feeder Canal instead of natural water.
The Farakka Barrage is a dam that diverts water from the Ganges into a canal near the town of Tildanga in Malda district. This supplies the Hooghly with adequate water even in the dry season.
Haldi, Ajay, Damodar and Rupnarayan are the rivers that feed the lower reaches of the Hooghly.
The important cities near the Hoogli River are Jiaganj, Azimganj, Murshidabad, and Baharampur.