KOLKATA: Metro breached the 6-lakh passenger count on the North-South corridor on Monday, recording 6,20,832 footfall. The maximum count was recorded at Dum Dum at 78,197, followed by Esplanade at 50,330 and Rabindra Sadan at 42,257. The last time the 6-lakh figure was breached was in March 2020, when 6,13,542 passengers took a Metro ride, before the Covid lockdown was declared.
In contrast, the truncated East-West Metro that operates between Salt Lake Sector V and Sealdah carried 40,229 passengers on Monday.
Metro officials said the rush of puja shoppers had helped the North-South Metro regain its pre-pandemic demand though operation hours were slightly less than that in pre-Covid times. The passenger count is expected to go up from Panchami, when pandal-hopping starts.
"We expect a huge footfall ahead of and during the pujas this time, after the two-year pandemic break," Metro Railway general manager Arun Arora had said last week.
The North-South corridor between Kavi Subhas and Dakshineswar stations used to have an average daily ridership of 6.2 lakh before the transport system was shut on March 23, 2020 at the outbreak of Covid. Ever since operations resumed on September 14, 2020, after a 176-day hiatus, and taking yet another Covid-induced break between May 16 and July 15 in 2021 during the second wave, the North-South line has come a long way to regain its pre-pandemic passenger count. On September 14, 2020, the count had dropped to a mere 21,336.
On July 1 this year, Metro returned to its pre-Covid fleet of 288 services. Three weekdays after the full fleet run started, Metro breached the 50lakh ridership. The figure shot up sharply from 5.5 lakh to beyond 6 lakh in the past few days.
After two years, North-South Metro will also operate nightlong services from Saptami to Navami. About additional services from days preceding the festival, when pandal-hopping starts, an official said, "A decision will be taken, depending on the situation." "It will be interesting to watch the ridership graph over the next two weeks," a Metro spokesperson said.
To address shoppers' rush, Metro started special pre-puja services on weekends from September 3, with 282 trains running on Saturdays, instead of 234, and 164 on Sundays, instead of 130.
