<Tr> <Th> Average speed </Th> <Td> 55 - 60 KMPH </Td> </Tr> <P> The Kolkata Metro is a rapid transit system serving the Kolkata metropolitan area in the Indian state of West Bengal . The network currently consists of one operational line of 27.22 km from Noapara to Kavi Subhash with five other lines in various phases of construction . The Kolkata Metro was the first metro railway in India, opening for commercial services from 1984 . On 29 December 2010, Metro Railway, Kolkata became the 17th zone of the Indian Railways, operated by the Ministry of Railways . There are 300 metro services daily carrying over 650,000 passengers making it the second busiest metro system in India . </P> <P> The then Chief Minister of West Bengal, Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy, first conceived the idea of building an Underground Railway for Kolkata in early 1950s . A survey was done by a team of French experts, but nothing concrete came of this . Efforts to solve the problem by augmenting the existing fleet of public transport vehicles hardly helped, since roads accounted for only 4.2% of the surface area in Kolkata, compared with 25% in Delhi and even 30% in other cities . With the goal of finding alternative solutions to alleviate the suffering of commuters, the Metropolitan Transport Project (Railways) (MTP) was set up in 1969 . The MTP (Rlys), with help of Soviet specialists (Lenmetroproekt) and East German engineers, prepared a master plan to provide five rapid - transit (metro) lines for the city of Kolkata, totalling a route length of 97.5 km in 1971 . However, only three were selected for construction . These were: </P> <Ul> <Li> Dum Dum - Tollygunge </Li> <Li> Salt Lake City - Ramrajatala (Presently truncated till Howrah Maidan, proposed to be expanded to Santragachi Bus Terminus) </Li> <Li> Dakshineshwar - Thakurpukur (route changed to Joka - BBD Bagh and Noapara - Dakhineshwar) </Li> </Ul>

Who took the initiative to plan the first underground railway in kolkata