Gearing up to handle increased passenger count and the more rakes, the city Metro has set up a separate maintenance shed at Kavi Subhash Car shed. The stretch between Kavi Subhash and Hemanta Mukhopadhyay has recently received the mandatory clearance from the office of the chief commissioner of railway safety, for commissioning public carriage of passengers with Electronic Interlocking on both up and down lines of the truncated stretch with ‘One Train Only System.’

After the final commissioning, Kavi Subhash Metro station would serve as the interchange point of Orange Line and Blue Line. In addition, it would also be the interchanging metro station of Blue Line and New Garia railway station of Eastern Railway. Like for the Blue Line, it is going to be one of the terminal stations of Orange Line. In the present system, after the commercial service of Blue Line, the rakes are stabled at the Kavi Subhash Metro car shed. Kavi Subhash car shed does not have a maintenance facility and only the stabling of rakes is done there.

However, after the final commissioning of the Orange Line which is expected to take place soon, the number of rakes is anticipated to increase on this stretch whose maintenance would also be required. Considering this, a separate maintenance shed has been constructed beside the existing Kavi Subhash car shed.This is expected to reduce the maintenance pressure on Noapara Car Depot.

According to the city Metro authorities, an Inspection Bay is required for the routine and unscheduled maintenance which consists of a 3- tier inspection facility that is under the car, side portion of the car and roof of the car for maintenance. In addition, a Lifting Bay is required during maintenance while the Stabling Bay is required for the stabling of rakes after the commercial services.

As informed by the city Metro office, the new shed at Kavi Subhash consists of Inspection Bay, Lifting Bay and Stabling Lines. The new shed also includes six new stabling lines, an automatic train washing plant for washing the rakes periodically, one battery powered railcar shunter to facilitate shunting of metro rakes in the yard and a 500 kWp solar power plant on the roof of the shed to reduce the carbon footprint.