Kolkata: Bowbazar tunnelling to resume

KOLKATA: The Calcutta high court division bench of Chief Justice Thottathil B Nair Radhakrishnan and justice Arijit Banerjee on Tuesday allowed Kolkata Metro Railway Corporation (KMRC) to resume its tunnelling work in Bowbazar. However, the court has directed KMRC to strictly follow the suggestions of IIT-Madras experts and submit its feedback to them during tunnelling. The court has instructed the Centre and the state government to cooperate in the operation.
On January 7, the court had directed that the National Disaster Management Committee would give its expert opinion on the tunnelling work. The direction came after the state submitted in court that its own disaster management committee lacked the expertise to provide any help in this operation.
Appearing for KMRC, counsels Bikash Bhattacharya and Shreya Basu Mullick submitted in court that the central government had directed KMRC to take opinion from any IIT on resuming tunnelling operations in Bowbazar. They further submitted that KMRC had approached IIT-Madras for suggestions.
Tunnelling operations of East-West Metro has remained suspended at Bowbazar since August 31 last year. On that day, one of the two tunnel-boring machines (TBMs) hit an aquifer, leading to subsidence. Soon after, in September, the division bench had issued an order directing KMRC to stop tunnelling work on a petition by an NGO.
The suggestions were made by IIT-Madras after discussions between the institution’s faculty member professor Rajagopal and members of an expert committee that recommended resuming tunnelling at Bowbazar. On behalf of IIT-Madras, Rajagopal submitted that after discussion with expert committee members and examining its report, the methodology proposed (by the committee) for resuming tunnelling work was feasible and practical. IIT-Madras recommended that monitoring of ground deformations be conducted as per indicated plans. It was also suggested that the plan of action should be along the lines of observational method of construction.