KOLKATA: Commuters without their transport lifeline for 61 days thronged the Metro stations on Friday. The carrier promptly decided to add 16 more services on the north-south corridor and reduce frequency from seven minutes to six minutes during peak hours from Monday. East-West Metro, however, will continue to run 48 trains on weekdays.
While north-south Metro’s passenger count on Friday was 1,28,957, E-W Metro carried 356 commuters.
Metro Railway general manager Manoj Joshi had said on Thursday: “We may add more trains from Monday even as we are starting our regular operations with 192 on Friday.” A day after the state announced resumption of the Metro, passengers had flocked the staff special trains that essential workers from across sectors are allowed to board. During Friday’s peak- hour traffic, the commute relief turned into desperation as people were in no mood to follow distancing norms.
Soon, Metro officials revised schedules and added 16 more services from Monday. “We could understand from the overwhelming response on the first day of our resumption that more trains are needed immediately. Despite our constraints, with no local trains available to ferry our staff from the suburbs, we will be running 208 services (104 in each direction) from Monday,” said Protyush Ghosh, deputy general manager (DGM), Metro Railway. Ghosh appealed to the commuters to “help them implement Covid protocols and follow distancing norms.”
In the peak hours, the rakes, running at 7-minute interval, looked nearly as crowded as they would be in the pre-pandemic times. Nobody seemed to take notice of the cross marks on the seats that are not meant to be used. The marks were drawn when Metro resumed operations on September 14, last year, after a 176-day hiatus. Metro had also introduced the e-pass technology at that time.
Now, without e-passes, crowd control seems to be posing a challenge. The only saving grace, though, was that everyone had their masks on. In April, when the second wave had set in, Metro announced a fine of Rs 200 on anyone who enters a station or boards a train without mask.
As per the state’s guidelines, Metro can’t run during the weekends. The carrier will be running 104 staff specials for essential workers on Saturdays.
