Metro sets up spl task force to crack down on joyriders
Times of India | 6 November 2024
Kolkata: No more joyrides in the under-river metro. Seven-and-a-half months after launching East-West Metro's Howrah Maidan-Esplanade section, Metro Railway is finally trying to prevent people from overstaying the rides. It has formed a special group of personnel to identify these erring passengers.
The 14-member special group's job is to detect passengers overstaying the ride limit allowed by the tickets. "At least 40 such passengers are being identified daily. They are intentionally overstaying the metro ride. They are booked under rules applicable to passengers travelling without valid tickets. On being found, the passengers are made to exit through the automatic fare collection (AFC) gates after they pay the required fare," a metro spokesperson said.
The phenomenon was noticed from Day One (March 15) of the launch of Green Line II, as East-West Metro's Howrah Maidan-Esplanade section is called. The 4.8 km stretch covers four stations – Howrah Maidan, Howrah (railway station), Mahakaran, and Esplanade. Initially, rules were flouted for joyrides. People wanted to experience India's first under-river Metro (with 550 metres of tunnelling below the Hooghly river bed). Since East-West Metro is still incomplete and the same train runs back and forth along the same tunnel, it was convenient to travel more than once on a single ticket.
"But now the compulsion is different because the gap between services has increased. The Howrah Maidan-Esplanade Metro becomes very crowded during rush hours. Instead of taking a train from Howrah to Esplanade, some prefer catching a down train to Howrah Maidan terminal, find a place to sit, and travel to Esplanade," a passenger confided. "This is causing much financial loss to metro," said an official.
In Sept, to ensure uninterrupted work in the incomplete Esplanade-Sealdah section, metro decided to use one rake (instead of two) and increase the 12-minute peak-hour frequencies to 15 and the 15-minute non-rush hour gaps to 20. Since there isn't any maintenance depot at the Howrah Maidan end, a rake was taken through the incomplete section to the Salt Lake depot every week. Now the rake maintenance has become a fortnightly affair and 111 services are being instead of 130 (available earlier) to ease pressure on the rakes.