City commute changes forever as Esplanade, Sealdah and Howrah stations bear load brunt
Times of India | 26 August 2025
Kolkata: Commute in Kolkata changed forever on Monday, the first weekday since Metro Green Line between Salt Lake Sector V and Howrah Maidan became fully operational on Friday evening. Several thousand people, who used buses and autos to travel to their workplace and back, switched to metro. Such was the rush that trains on both the Green and Blue Lines were thrown out of gear. Closing the train and platform screen doors at Mahakaran Station proved a challenge on Monday evening, holding up trains on Green Line.
As more people become familiar with the network, Metro expects a further surge in traffic.
Monday was also a tale of two rail stations that the Green Line connected — Howrah and Sealdah — which are among the busiest rail stations in the country. On Monday, the metro stations at these complexes also became among the busiest. | Gold Rates Today in Kolkata | Silver Rates Today in KolkataHundreds of daily commuters from the districts who travel to various parts of the city for work hopped on to metro at these stations. Officials estimated Monday's footfall at Sealdah metro station to be around 80,000, up from 40,000 last Monday. At Howrah, Monday's footfall is projected to be around 75,000, up from 30,000 a week ago.
Before the two E-W stretches were disjointed, Parikshit Das, who works in SBI's Howrah branch, would take a train to Esplanade, from where he switched to the Blue Line to Sovabazar, where he took two auto rides to another SBI branch in Salt Lake. "Today we simply took the metro from Howrah station, got off at City Centre station, and walked to the other office in Salt Lake," he said.
Md Musa, who lives in South Dinajpur and has come to the city after making it to NRS Medical College, took a metro from Howrah Maidan to Sealdah for his admissions on Monday.
Between 8 am and 11.30 am, Howrah metro station recorded around 30,000 footfall.
Senior officials, including principal chief operations manager (PCOM) Lakheswar Saikia, visited the two stations, along with senior RPF officials, including IG, Metro Railway RPF, Saurabh Tribedi. Saikia helped people use the Amar Kolkata Metro app. On instructions from the senior officials, three more counters were added in Howrah station, apart from the five running ones. The most congested part of Sealdah metro station was the ticketing area that leads to Eastern Railway's Sealdah South section.