With the festive season going on and the Durga Puja — the biggest festival in West Bengal – less than a month away, the Kolkata Metro has decided to restart its operations on Sundays too, authorities said on Monday.
The Kolkata Metro, which is the city’s lifeline, restarted it operations from September 14, more than five months after its services were suspended due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Special trains were operated on September 13 for NEET candidates and guardians only. The services were, however, available only from Monday to Saturday.
“Metro Railway is going to resume its services on Sunday from October 4. On Sundays the services would be available from 10:10 am to 7:30 pm,” a Kolkata Metro spokesperson said.
As the puja season nears and the shopping spree has started metro services would be available only on the north-south section and not on the east-west corridor. The north-south corridor connects or passes close by some of the major shopping destinations of the city.
While the festive season has already started from September 17 with the Viswakarma Puja and Mahalayala, the Durga Puja is scheduled from October 22. Major shopping centres in the city remain open on Sundays starting from one month before the Puja.
The north south section is considered to be the city’s lifeline. After resuming its services, the north south corridor is carrying around 50,000 passengers every day. On Monday while the north-south metro carried 55,228 passengers, the east-west corridor carried only around 163 passengers.
With passenger count increasing, the Kolkata Metro had already increased the number of trains from September 28 taking the total number of trains from 110 to 116 that runs every day in the north-south corridor.
Source: https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/kolkata-metro-to-resume-operations-on-sundays-ahead-of-durga-puja/story-c41ufNtpSaB0nBlwzws3BJ.html
