India Subway Systems

[TMRG]

Hi everyone,

After my introduction in the Introduction subforum, I just wanted to share how Indian subway (called metro) systems stack up with one another:

India is evidently going through a transportation revolution at the moment and through my site, I'm trying to chronicle its progress. The updates I share on my site/twitter are unfortunately not covered in the local/electronic media.

Feel free to ask me any questions you may have!

Cheers,
TMRG

 

[NW cannonball]

Is anything cooking in Kolkata? And/or the far south like Thiruvananthapuram?

 

[jis]

Kolkata has five new Metro lines in planning or under construction in addition to six suburban line extensions.

The metro lines include one east-west crosstown connecting the two main rail stations and the international airport. Three interconnecting extensions of the existing lines and one connector from the south to downtown.

The suburban line extensions close by are the completion of the replacement of the Martin Burn Light Railway in Howrah. A little further out are the extensions of the Sealdah South Division along the Bangladesh Border beyond Hasnabad and to Kakdwip on the Bay of Bengal from Namkhana. There is also a new bridge across the Hooghly connecting Budge Budge to the South Eastern Railway main line to Kharagpur. Also the Circular Railway is getting fully double tracked. There are a few more that I can't recall off the top of my head.I

In the schematic diagram below all the colored lines are Metro Lines. Only the Green Line is currently operational. The rest are in various stages of construction or planning. The black lines are the suburban main line network. The Brown east-west line is in the most advanced stages of construction. Suburban line extension projects are not shown in this diagram.

 

[NW cannonball]

Looks like some serious investment in transit.

Thanks for the info

 

[jis]

One thing that should be noted though is that the new Metro systems are predominantly surface or elevated lines. A relatively small proportion of them are in actual tunnels. So to call them Subway systems is a bit of a stretch. That is why many prefer the more generic term "Metro" for them. Also most of them are overhead electrified. There are exception specifically in Kolkata, and a few elsewhere, but they are exceptions not the general case. They are mostly electrified using OHE 25kV 50Hz system. Most of them are Broad Gauge too, but there are some that are Standard Gauge. In general each line operates as a separate entity so mismatch of gauge is not a major issue.