KOLKATA: Metro Railway may extend its evening operations by one or one-and-a-half hours for revellers during the Puja days.
But in keeping with Calcutta High Court’s restrictions, the number of services will remain the same. Trains will be frequent as services may start only at 10am and not at 7.30am. But like last year, there will be no night-long services because of the pandemic.
Until 2019, Metro Railway ran services till 4am during the Durga Puja days. Just before Pujas last year, the high court had ordered not to allow crowds near the pandals and Metro Railway dropped the all-night special services between Saptami and Dashami for pandal-hoppers. This year, even as the Mamata Banerjee government extended Covid-19 curbs till October 30, it lifted the night curfew for the Puja days, and some people were hoping if the authorities running Kolkata’s lifeline would provide matching services. But Manoj Joshi, Metro Railway general manager, told TOI on Tuesday, “We may only extend services by 1 hour or one-and-a-half hours, beyond the present 9.30pm during the Puja days. We are working out the details and shall share it once it is finalized. The total number of trains will not increase as we will start services late on these holidays.”
The state government has allowed Metro to function for the public on weekdays and the carrier currently has increased its weekly trains to 266 since Monday. That’s its highest number of services in pandemic times. Before the pandemic, Metro’s total fleet was 288. Even as Metro, with a 3-lakh ridership, is gradually trying to reach its pre-pandemic fleet, the facility seems inclined to maintain the 266 daily services during the Puja week as well, to maintain the essence of the high court restrictions. “At the same time, the government has lifted the night curfew. So people are likely to go pandal-hopping beyond 9.30pm. We shall have to accommodate this late-evening crowd,” a Metro official said.
The first Metro train now starts at 7.30am and the last ones leave terminals at 9.30pm. Metro may tweak the operation hours and start services at 10am. The last trains may leave at 10pm or 10.30pm. Officials said there will be fewer people from the districts flocking to Kolkata for pandal hopping this year as suburban train services have not resumed. Only staff special local trains are now running.
Post the second wave, Metro has emerged as the city’s public transport backbone and has also been running staff specials on Saturdays and Sundays. Even as these are actually meant for essential workers, the authorities have stopped checking the ID cards and the public, especially Pujas shoppers, have made the most of these staff special services.
