The Kolkata Metro is a rapid transit system serving the city of Kolkata and the wider Kolkata Metropolitan Region in West Bengal, India. It is the first operational rapid transit system in India, and the second busiest metro network in India. it has three operational lines: a line from Dakshineswar to Kavi Subhash, a line from Salt Lake Sector V to Sealdah, and a line from Joka to Taratala, for a total of . Three other lines are in various phases of construction. The system has a mix of underground, at-grade and elevated stations using both broad-gauge and standard-gauge tracks. Trains operate between 06:55 and 22:30 IST and the fares range from ₹5 to ₹25.
The Kolkata Metro was initially planned in the 1920s, but construction started in the 1970s. The first underground stretch, from Bhawanipore (now Netaji Bhawan) to Esplanade, opened in 1984. A truncated section of Line 2, or the East–West Corridor, from Salt Lake Sector V to Phoolbagan opened in 2020. Line 3, or the Joka-Esplanade Corridor (currently truncated in Taratala), opened in 2022. It is the fifth-longest operational metro network in India after the Delhi Metro, Namma Metro, Hyderabad Metro and Chennai Metro.
Metro Railway, Kolkata and Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation are the owners and operator of the system. On 29 December 2010, Metro Railway, Kolkata, became the 17th zone of the Indian Railways, completely owned and funded by the Ministry of Railways. It is the only metro in the country to be controlled by Indian Railways. There are around 300 daily train trips carrying more than passengers.
History
Early attempts
In the September 1919 session of the Imperial Legislative Council at Shimla, a committee was set up by W. E. Crum that recommended a metro line for Kolkata (formerly Calcutta). This line was supposed to connect Bagmari in the east to Benaras Road, Salkia, in Howrah in the west via a tunnel beneath Hooghly River. The estimated construction costs were £3,526,154, about based on current exchange rates, and the proposed deadline was 1925–1926. The proposed line was long, about shorter than the current East-West Corridor, which would connect East Bengal Railway in Bagmari and East Indian Railway in Benaras Road. The tickets were priced at 3 annas ( 0.1875) for the full trip. Crum also mentioned a north–south corridor back then. An east–west metro railway connection, named the "East–West Tube Railway", was proposed for Kolkata in 1921 by Harley Dalrymple-Hay. All the reports can be found in his 1921 book Calcutta Tube Railways. However, in 1923, the proposal was not undertaken due to a lack of funds.
Planning
The then Chief Minister of West Bengal, Bidhan Chandra Roy, reconceived the idea of an underground railway for Kolkata from 1949 to 1950. A survey was done by a team of French experts, but nothing concrete came of this. Efforts to solve problem traffic by augmenting the existing fleet of public transport vehicles hardly helped, since roads accounted for only 4.2 percent of the surface area in Kolkata, compared with 25 percent in Delhi and 30 percent in other cities. To find alternative solutions, the Metropolitan Transport Project (MTP) was set up in 1969. The MTP, with the help of Soviet specialists, Lenmetroproekt and East German engineers, prepared a master plan to provide five rapid-transit (metro) lines for the city of Kolkata, totaling a length of , in 1971. Three were selected for construction. These were:
Dum Dum – Tollygunge (Line 1. Presently operates from Dakshineswar to New Garia) Bidhannagar – Ramrajatala (Line 2. Presently truncated till Howrah Maidan) Dakshineswar – Thakurpukur (Divided into Line 1; Noapara to Dakshineswar and Line 3; Joka to Esplanade)
The highest priority was given to the busy north–south corridor between Dum Dum and Tollygunge over a length of ; work on this project was approved on 1 June 1972. A tentative deadline was fixed to complete all the corridors by 1991.
Construction
Since it was India's first metro and was constructed as a completely indigenous process, a traditional cut-and-cover method and driven shield tunneling was chosen and the Kolkata Metro was more of a trial-and-error affair, in contrast to the Delhi Metro, which saw the involvement of multiple international consultants. As a result, it took nearly 23 years to completely construct the underground railway.