Metro Rail-Bengal govt meeting on Thursday over resuming services

The Metro Railway authorities will hold a meeting with West Bengal government officers on Thursday on modalities for running trains maintaining social distancing and other COVID-19 prevention protocol, an official said here.

The Metro Railway authorities will hold a meeting with West Bengal government officers on Thursday on modalities for running trains maintaining social distancing and other COVID-19 prevention protocol, an official said here. The meeting will also discuss deployment of Kolkata Police personnel for assisting the railway authorities in maintaining the health safety norms, the Metro official said on Wednesday.

"A decision on the date for resuming Metro services can be taken only after the meeting," the official said. The Union Home Ministry recently issued Unlock 4 guidelines under which Metro Railway services is allowed to restart from September 7 in a graded manner.

The West Bengal government had also written to the Railway Board seeking resumption of Metro and suburban train services in a limited manner maintaining the norms of physical distancing and health and hygiene protocols. Metro Railway General Manager Manoj Joshi reviewed sanitisation work of stations and rakes at a meeting on Tuesday, its spokesperson Indrani Banerjee said.

As part of the readiness exercise for resumption of Metro services in the days to come, Joshi has instructed the departments concerned to sanitise all stations and rakes regularly to prevent the spread of coronavirus, Banerjee said. PTI AMR NN NN