Work on Purple Line’s Kidderpore station starts

Kolkata: The two-year impasse over permission to use land inside the property have been resolved with the agencies conducting inspections of the Alipore Bodyguard Lines on Wednesday to start the pre-construction work for the 's . Around 800 square metres inside the police lines are needed mainly to widen Diamond Harbour Road, below which the corridor's first underground station will be constructed.On June 26, overcame the Kidderpore station hurdle with the KMC issuing an NOC for land use inside Alipore Bodyguard Lines. Wednesday's inspection by Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd (RVNL), the implementing agency of the 14km , and Kolkata Police, related to chalking out the basic work plan inisde the police barracks. RVNL engineers, in consultation with officials of Kolkata Armed Police, custodians of these barracks at Ekbalpore, marked out an 837 square metre area inside Bodyguard Lines and identified the structures to be relocated to free up the land. "The final design of the station will be based on the Bodyguard Lines land use," an official said.Apart from widening a 380-metre stretch of DH Road by 5 metres along the western flank, the land will also be used to build a ventilation shaft, the metro station's accesses and the relocation of utilities lying below arterial DH Road. As per conditions laid by the state govt, certain sections of the 380-metre stretch between Ekbalpore and St Thomas' School (from where the underground tunnelling starts) will be widened temporarily. "The original boundary in certain sections will be restored once the Kidderpore station construction is over," an official said.RVNL has listed the infringing structures, which include some godowns, an underground reservoir, water supply lines, a temple and a PWD office. While RVNL will shift the godowns and the temple, PWD will shift its office. RVNL has paid KMC Rs 45 crore to relocate the sewer lines between Mominpore and Kidderpore. Therefore, the civic body will be relaying the sewer lines below the land available inside Bodyguard Lines.The Purple Line — with extension plans of 1.6 km to Eden Gardens in the north and 1.2 km to IIM-Calcutta on the southern fringes and the crucial interchange with the Blue Line (North-South Metro) at Esplanade — promises to emerge as a lifeline for the people of Behala and beyond. Without access to Bodyguard Lines all this time, the project ran into severe crisis even as work for the 5km underground section and the other three underground stations (Victoria, Park Street, and Esplanade) was in full swing.Get the latest lifestyle updates on Times of India, along with Happy Diwali wishes, messages and quotes !