Kolkata: Land work before testing soil for Metro Joka-Esplanade which has been awaited has started in the Maidan area.
This is a milestone for the Metro corridor that has been burdened with some missed deadlines even because it is the Minister of Mamata Banerjee’s PET project.
Banerjee has marked the project in July 2011 and planned it when he was the train minister in 2009-10.
Finally, Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL), the 15km Joka-Esplanade Metro Executing Agency or Kolkata 3, has begun the process of testing the soil, after going forward from the army, the custodian of land inside and around the Maidan area.
The Metro corridor increased from Joka to Mominpore.
But the stretch of 5.6km from Mominpore until the esplanade will be underground.
Five stations – Mominpore, Kidderpore, Victoria Memorial, Park Street and Esplanade – will appear along this stretch.
A soil testing survey by geotechnical engineers is mandatory before deploying a tunnel drill machine (TBMS) to build underground parts.
Crucial tests should check soil conditions and other parameters and depend on the results, further work will be planned.
Land tests will also learn other erosion and characteristics before TBM can be pressed to dig and dig twin tunnels as part of the Joka-Esplanade Metro Link.
Usually, a series of drill holes, each in a diameter of at least 15 million, was drilled after a certain gap.
Usually, a boring rig with auger (drilling devices) drill drill holes and tubes are encouraged to collect samples, which are tested for several parameters such as density, strength and resistance.
But in the case of this metro work, the locality is Maidan, so that soil samples may not be collected from drill holes to map strata along alignment.
Instead, superior technology will be used to detect remote topography and related specifications without influencing the reasons for Maidan.
A senior RVNL official said, “We strive to use the Hi-Tech method so that testing can be done at various routes proposed without causing losses to Maidan, which is an environmentally sensitive zone.” The area on Maidan has been battered for preliminary work ahead of the main land testing training.
RVNL takes extra care to complete work after all green rules and guidelines related to Maidan.
Over the past few months, agencies have met with the Army, so that problems related to Metro projects can be reduced and construction can be done.
“The Metro project approved in 2010 can so far be executed until Mominpore.
Outside Mominpore, the land belongs to the troops,” said a train official.
At present, this project pursues a mid-2022 deadline to assign 8.5km Joka-Taratala.