Kolkata Light Rail Transit (KLRT) is a mass rapid transit system proposed for the city of

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. The

Government of West Bengal The Government of West Bengal also known as the West Bengal Government, is the subnational government of the Indian state of West Bengal , created by the National Constitution as the state's legislative, executive and judicial authority. The ...

and SREI Infrastructure Finance signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to set up the light rail transit (LRT) system. A special purpose vehicle, Kolkata Mass Rapid Transit Pvt Ltd has been formed to execute this Rs.6000 crore project.

History

April 2002: The Master Plan for

Kolkata Metropolitan Area Kolkata Metropolitan Area (abbreviated KMA; formerly Calcutta Metropolitan Area), also known as Greater Kolkata, is the urban agglomeration of the city of Kolkata in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is the third most populous metropolitan are ...

(KMA) for 2025 was submitted for the approval by the Metropolitan Planning Committee. It was proposed to be executed soon after securing agreement from the

Chief Minister of West Bengal The Chief Minister of West Bengal is the representative of the Government of India in the state of West Bengal and the head of the executive branch of the Government of West Bengal. The chief minister is head of the Council of Ministers and ap ...

Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee also known as Buddha Babu (born 1 March 1944) is an Indian Communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and ...

. It was suggested in the feasibility report that it will work well as an intermediate system for some selected corridors. The search for funding started and it did not sound much in public. 2004: The Kolkata government wanted assistance from the central government which agreed to provide assistance for one major transit system project. Bhattacharjee chose LRTS over the East-West Metro corridor for the assistance and asked the state transport secretary to prepare a revised feasibility study. April 2005: The feasibility study by CES termed it as EMRTS (Elevated Mass Rapid Transit System) and proposed three corridors, all terminating at Esplanade. The rolling stock they proposed was high speed trams. February 2009: The LRTS project was listed under JNNURM. It was to be jointly executed by SREI and the Czech-based AMEX Corporation on a Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) basis. It was also proposed to make the LRTS station at Barrackpore a terminal point connecting it with the main line station. Mr.

Hemant Kanoria Hemant Kanoria is an Indian businessman. He ran two family-owned flour mills in West Bengal. When the family exited the business, he started a financing company for the construction sector with his younger brother, Sunil Kanoria, which grew i ...

, Chairman and Managing Director of Srei Infrastructure Limited signed an MOU with the Government of West Bengal to execute this project along with their consortium partners.

Corridors

*Corridor 1: Joka — Esplanade. *Corridor 2: Esplanade — Barrackpore. *Corridor 3: New Town (Narkelbagan) — Hatisala.

References

{{authority control Light rail in India Transport in Kolkata Airport rail links in India