The 7.2 km-long Kona Expressway will significantly boost connectivity between Howrah, adjoining rural areas, and Kolkata, cutting down travel time by hours and giving a major push to trade, commerce, and tourism in the region, officials said.
Earlier in the day, the Prime Minister flagged off the three new metro services spanning the Green, Yellow, and Orange lines, covering 13.61 km, which officials termed a “defining moment” in the city’s metro journey that began in 1984.
“It is a matter of pride that India boasts the third-largest metro network in the world. Remarkably, prior to 2014, the country had only 250 km of metro routes. Today, that figure has exceeded 1,000 km,” Modi said.
The Prime Minister stressed that the six-lane elevated Kona Expressway will significantly enhance connectivity and become a “game changer for Bengal in its progress.”
The newly inaugurated 13.61 km metro network, spread across the Green, Yellow, and Orange lines, marks a defining moment in the city’s metro journey that began in 1984. For air travellers, the Yellow Line stretch from Noapara to Jai Hind Bimanbandar (6.77 km) will, for the first time in 41 years, connect the airport directly with the city’s metro grid. The airport run, which typically takes over an hour by road, is expected to be halved to just 30 minutes.
The Orange Line will further expand the city’s east-west connectivity, adding capacity to a network that has been steadily growing in recent years. Modi inaugurated the 4.4 km stretch between the Hemanta Mukhopadhyay–Beleghata section of the Orange Line.
The Green Line will see the biggest benefit with services increasing to 186. The Orange Line will now run 60 services while the Yellow Line will operate 120. The Green Line extension between Sealdah and Esplanade (2.45 km) will provide the first seamless metro link between the two busiest railway terminals in the metropolis — Howrah and Sealdah. What takes nearly 50 minutes by road through snarled traffic will now take about 11 minutes underground.
After inaugurating the three metro stretches in Kolkata, the Prime Minister took a ride on the brand-new 6 km Jai Hind Bimanbandar–Noapara route, boarding the train at Jessore Road station. During the ride, he interacted with schoolchildren and posed for photographs with them.
He then travelled to the Jai Hind Bimanbandar (city airport) station, where he was shown around the facilities, before returning to Jessore Road station. He was accompanied by West Bengal Governor C.V. Ananda Bose, BJP state president Samik Bhattacharya, Union minister Sukanta Majumdar, and Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari during the inauguration programme.
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