Defence denies permission to shift BC Roy Market for Esplanade Metro Stn construction

Kolkata: Defence denied permission to relocate BC Roy Market for construction of Esplanade Metro Station of the Purple line, Metro Railway General Manager P Uday Kumar Reddy said. “It may come up elsewhere. We are planning,” he said. A portion of the Purple Line from Joka to the recently extended Majerhat is currently operational. According to Reddy, it is going to take some more time due to the recent development. The market is an unauthorised one and earlier the Esplanade Metro Station for the Purple Line was supposed to come there. “But recently the defence refused to give us permission. We will work it out,” Reddy said.

He also said that they want Esplanade Metro Station to be a point of intersection. During the launch of the ‘Metro Ride Kolkata’ app for iOS platform, Reddy on the sidelines said that as per the plan the Purple Line will have another interchange point at Park Street.

The app was earlier available only on Android Platform. Metro Railway had introduced a QR code based ticketing system in the East-West Metro Corridor. In order to avail this service, commuters had to download the app.

Around 4,30,125 commuters have already downloaded the app, which is designed by Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS). Reddy said that the app has already helped in decreasing the crowding at ticket counters.

The updated app includes all the newly-inaugurated stations on Howrah Maidan to Esplanade stretch of Green Line as well. “We are aiming to complete the remaining section (Esplanade to Sealdah) by October. Once the entire stretch becomes operational, we are expecting more commuters in this line compared to the existing Blue Line which connects Kavi Subhash to Dakshineswar,” Reddy said.