The number of passengers on the first day in this 4.8-km underground stretch between Howrah Maidan and Esplanade was 70,204, the official said. He said that out of these, 23,444 persons boarded at Howrah Maidan, while 20,923 passengers boarded at Howrah, which is the deepest metro station in India.

Jubilant commuters experience country's first under-river metro service

Justice Dipankar Datta, currently in the Supreme Court, was a Calcutta High Court judge in 2012, when a difference in opinion between the Ministry of Railway and the West Bengal government brought the under-the-river project to a deadlock. Datta intervened to clear all the hurdles.

The Rs 4,965-crore Howrah Maidan-Esplanade section of Kolkata Metro’s East-West Corridor, which has the first transportation tunnel “under any mighty river in India”, was inaugurated by the PM. The stretch also has the deepest metro station in the country — the Howrah metro station.