Staff crunch: 27 supers to manage 50 metro stns across 4 corridors
Times of India | 7 June 2024
Kolkata: In a departure from the usual practice of each station being manned by a manager, the 50 metro stations that are currently in operation in Kolkata will be managed by 27 superintendents instead of 50.
On Tuesday Metro Railway, which owns and runs the city’s four mass rapid corridors, issued an order on the rejigged current arrangement — of each of the 26 North-South stations having with one station superintendent (SS or station-in-charge) — by posting them across the North-South (Blue) line, East-West Metro (Green) line, the New Garia-Ruby (Orange) line and the Joka-Majerhat (Purple) line.The North-South corridor, which has been the city’s transport lifeline for the last four decades, is now in an unprecedented situation.
The carrier has been reeling under severe staff shortage for some time now.
Each SS will now be responsible for two metro stations instead of one. The only exceptions are Kavi Subhas or New Garia, Noapara and Joka stations. (New Garia is a terminal and junction station for Blue and Orange lines. Noapara of the North-South corridor will soon become a junction station, once the Noapara-Airport corridor is commissioned.
Joka is the terminal station of the Purple line.) The same formula — of one SS for two Metro stations — applies to the newer lines, which have had only one SS for an entire line for several months.
“It’s not possible for one man to be in two places at the same time, is it? What is there be a snag or some other exigency, and the SS, who is in charge of two stations, has to rush to the other station? It makes better sense to have the man in charge present in the station premises during crises,” a Metro staff said. “Fingers crossed … hope that nothing untoward happens and all the SSs can comfortably manage two stations,” said another.
Asked to comment, Metro Railway general manager P Uday Kumar Reddy said, “The staff crunch has hit us because retired personnel have not been replaced. We are trying to fill the vacancies before the entire 16km stretch of East-West Metro is operational. At least 7lakh daily ridership is expected once the Esplanade-Sealdah section is linked to the two disjointed sections.”
That’s easier said than done, rued a senior official. Kolkata Metro’s operating ratio (ratio of total working expenses to earnings) is hovering around 280. Which means, the carrier spends Rs 280 for every Rs 100 it earns. As a solution, Metro has been in talks with DMRC to manage East-West Metro and outsource various posts.
Over 4.5lakh people have used East-West Metro’s new section (Howrah Maidan to Esplanade). The corridor has another operational section – from Sector V to Sealdah, which has had one SS manning all the eight stations since it was commissioned in July 2022.
The Howrah Maidan-Esplanade section, too, has had one SS manning the four new stations ever since it was launched on March 15. “Now all corridors will have an SS for two stations. This is a major step to streamline operations, with the available staff strength,” said an official.