Kolkata Metro’s Orange Line has crossed the long-delayed Chingrighata bottleneck, with a push-trolley inspection completed on the Beleghata–IT Centre section and the track now ready for electrical works, Metro Railway said. The milestone brings the New Garia–Sector V connection closer to passenger operations, although commissioning is still pending.
The inspection was conducted on September 17 on the Beleghata, also known as Metropolitan, to IT Centre section of the Kavi Subhash–Jai Hind Bimanbandar corridor. The completed track links the existing Beleghata station with Sector V, where the Orange Line will interface with the Green Line corridor between Sector V and Howrah Maidan.
“The first push trolley inspection on the Beleghata–IT Centre section of Kavi Subhash–Jai Hind Bimanbandar Metro Corridor (Orange Line) was conducted on Sept 17, marking a major milestone for the project,” a Metro Railway spokesperson said. The official added that viaduct and ballastless track work on the section had been completed and that electrical work could now begin.
The key obstruction at Chingrighata was a 366-metre gap in the viaduct across the EM Bypass. The final 31-metre concrete deck slab was placed in August, after which girders were erected across the crossing over two successive weekends in mid-May 2026. Traffic was diverted through a new road built by Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd in December 2024 to facilitate the work.
The Orange Line currently operates over 9 km between Kavi Subhash station in New Garia and Metropolitan station in Beleghata. The Beleghata–IT Centre section includes three new metro stations and the viaduct connecting them. Once the section is commissioned, Metro Railway expects passengers to travel from New Garia to Sector V in about 30 minutes.
The 32-km Kavi Subhash–Jai Hind Bimanbandar Metro project was sanctioned in 2010 and is being implemented in five phases. The first phase, from Kavi Subhash to Hemanta Mukhopadhyay near Ruby crossing, and the second phase, from Hemanta Mukhopadhyay to Beleghata, have already been commissioned with passenger services running.
The project had been expected to reach Sector V in June 2025, but completion of the Chingrighata viaduct work remained a major constraint. The bottleneck was removed after the crossing work progressed in 2026, allowing track installation to advance across the previously incomplete section.
Metro Railway general manager Prem Sagar Gupta had earlier indicated that the organisation was targeting December 31 to commission the Beleghata–IT Centre section. Before passenger services can begin, the remaining electrical works and subsequent operational procedures will have to be completed. The December 31 target is therefore the next major milestone for extending Orange Line services to Sector V.
