Crowd pressure prompts Kolkata Metro to add more services on Hwh-Esplanade route
Times of India | 17 November 2024
12 Kolkata: Metro Railway will add more services along the eastbound tunnel of the East-West Metro's under-river section between Howrah Maidan and Esplanade from Monday to tackle overcrowding on trains after services were curtailed on the westbound tunnel.
The gap between trains on the Howrah Maidan-Esplanade stretch will be reduced from 24 minutes to 20 minutes. More drivers will be deployed to maintain the revised frequency. Operation hours for trains on westbound line have been further curtailed to make up for the added services on the eastbound line. The first train from Howrah Maidan to Esplanade on the eastbound line will start at 6:55 am and from Esplanade to Howrah Maidan at 7:12 am. However, the first train from Howrah Maidan to Mahakaran (westbound line) will depart at 9:08 am, and from Mahakaran at 9:20 am. The last trains on the eastbound tunnels will be at 9:46 pm from Howrah Maidan and at 9:58 pm from Esplanade. But the last trains on the westbound line from Howrah Maidan will be at 9:08 pm and from Mahakaran at 9:20 pm. Trains run in both directions from both east and westbound tunnels in the Howrah Maidan-Esplanade section or Green Line 2 because East-West Metro's Esplanade-Sealdah section is still incomplete. The corridor runs in disjointed sections (Howrah Maidan-Esplanade via river Hooghly and Sealdah-Sector V). Since last Monday, operations were tweaked in the westbound line to speed up work in the incomplete section. Trains on this line are terminating at Mahakaran instead of Esplanade. Most passengers, either headed for Howrah Maidan or Esplanade, which has an interface with the Blue line, have been overcrowding to board trains from the eastbound tunnel. On Saturday, Metro announced that instead of the existing 76 services in the eastbound tunnel, 82 would be available in both directions – between Howrah Maidan and Esplanade. On the westbound tunnel, 68 services will be provided from Monday instead of 74. "The demand for the entire 4.8 km Howrah Maidan-Esplanade stretch is much more than the now-truncated Howrah Maidan-Mahakaran section. So operations are being revised to manage the rush," an official said.
Services are curtailed on the westbound tunnel because two rakes are parked between Esplanade and Mahakaran. Two other rakes are being used for commercial runs, one on the westbound tunnel between Mahakaran and Howrah Maidan and another on the eastbound tunnel between Esplanade and Howrah Maidan. The two rakes kept on standby will replace the ones operating now after a fortnight.