Kolkata Metro mulling increasing frequency of trains

In the East West Metro line between Salt Lake Sector-V and Salt Lake Stadium, the passenger count for Tuesday and Wednesday were 127 and 72, respectively, the official said. On the first day of resumption of services on September 14, there were around 20,000 passengers in the north-south line, while only 83 persons travelled in the East West route.

The Kolkata Metro Railway is planning to increase the frequency of services during peak hours from 10 minutes at present to 8 minutes, a senior official said on Thursday. It is also contemplating augmenting the number of services in a day to carry more passengers, he said.

"We are thinking of increasing the frequency to 8 minutes from 9-11 am and 5-7 pm, as well as expanding the number of services from 110 per day to 116 per day," the Metro Railway official said. The Kolkata Metro resumed operations after over five months on September 14 with strict health protocols in place in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, and introducing e-passes for entry into stations.

A maximum 400 passengers can travel at a time in its trains to avoid crowding and maintain safety norms. The number of passengers are rising slowly in the main north-south alignment between Kavi Subhash and Noapara, but patrons in the East West Metro have barely crossed the 100- mark since resumption of services, another Metro Railway official said.

As per official data, 45,808 passengers travelled in the north-south alignment on September 23, while the number stood at 46,711 the previous day. In the East West Metro line between Salt Lake Sector-V and Salt Lake Stadium, the passenger count for Tuesday and Wednesday were 127 and 72, respectively, the official said.

On the first day of resumption of services on September 14, there were around 20,000 passengers in the north-south line, while only 83 persons travelled in the East West route. The frequency of trains in the East West line was reduced to a 30-minute interval from a 20-minute gap owing to the poor passenger patronage.

With a large number of employees in the IT hub working from home owing to COVID restrictions, there have not been many takers for Metro Railway services on the East West route, said Pramod Singhal, manager of an information technology solutions company based in Sector-V. The north-south line, with 283 services on weekdays before the coronavirus lockdown started in the last week of March, carried around 6.5 lakh passengers.

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