Man proposes to girlfriend on Kolkata Metro on Valentine’s Day; Pic goes viral

Kolkata: A man was seen proposing to his girlfriend with a rose while journeying by the new East West Kolkata Metro on Valentine’s Day Friday.

The man knelt down on his knees to propose to the smiling woman occupying a seat of the nearly empty coach of the spank new metro, which began its commercial run Friday.

The Kolkata Metro shared on its social media handle a photo of the man proposing to the woman.

Ending a wait of 36 years, Kolkata got its second metro line Thursday, as Railways Minister Piyush Goyal flagged off the first phase of the East-West Metro corridor connecting the city’s tech hub of Salt Lake Sector V to the soccer venue Yuva Bharati Krirangan.

In 1984, the country’s first underground railway service – that runs from the city’s north to the south – was inaugurated here by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

After missing several deadlines, the much-awaited East West Metro Railway – a part of which when fully commissioned would constitute India’s first under-river train line – would begin commercial operation on Friday over a truncated 4.88 kilometer stretch linking six overground stations – Sector V, Karunamoyee, Central Park, City Centre, Bengal Chemical and Salt Lake Stadium stations.

Goyal said the full 16.6-km stretch is likely to be completed in two years, but said bottlenecks to be cleared for that.

“The entire stretch from Sector 5 to Howrah Maidan is likely to be completed in two years, provided bottlenecks affecting the route are cleared through local support,” he said, and mentioned that over Rs 6,500 crore has been spent on the project so far.

In a veiled dig at the state’s Trinamool Congress government on the delay in the project, Goyal said: Though the work started in 2009, it was stalled from 2012 to 2015 on the pretext of route realignment.. it caused cost escalation.”

PNN/Agencies