- The Indian Minister of Railways, Piyush Goyal, tweeted a video of India’s first underwater water metro on Twitter.
- Some Twitter users congratulated the Indian government while others wondered why the money couldn’t be spent on fixing the trains that already exist.
- A few users also questioned the motive behind the move and wondered why the investment couldn’t be used to create more jobs or reduce poverty.
The Indian Minister of Railways, Piyush Goyal, created havoc on Twitter when he shared a video of the underwater metro that is under construction under the Hoogly river in Kolkata on Twitter.
Twitterati chimed in congratulating Goyal and commending the progress of the Indian Railways. But there were also reactions that the layman doesn’t want a fancy new metro service, but a metro service that’s clean and functional.
One Twitter user sarcastically pointed out how it will be easier for passengers to escape from a train that’s falling into the river — they’ll simply catch the underwater metro instead.
The other criticism of the underwater metro was how the Indian Railways should focus on fixing products on its older trains — like unclean bathrooms, lax safety standards and food quality — rather than trying to manage a new technology.
Users also pointed out that the money used for the underwater metro, that is estimated to cost ₹60 crore, might have been better spent dealing with India’s burgeoning unemployment and poverty.
Railing underwater
The underwater metro is going to run along a 520 meter stretch of tunnels and is built 30 meters under the the riverbed. The total tunneling length is around 10.6 kilometers with the entire metro line constituting of 16.6 kilometers.
While the underground tunnel is estimated to cost ₹60 crore, the entire East-West Metro Project has a total cost of ₹9,000 crore.