Near old-normal weekend on Kolkata Metro without e-passes – Times of India

KOLKATA: With 1,22,772 passengers and no e-pass required, Metro on Saturday saw an almost pre-pandemic normal weekend. Commuters maintained social distancing norms and adhered to the SOPs, thus allowing adequate crowd management inside the trains and the 24 stations of the north-south corridor.
This was the first time the city’s lifeline operated one whole day — from 7am till 10.30pm — without digital passes. Ever since it resumed services on September 14 after a 175-day hiatus, e-passes — downloaded in advance — have been restricting crowds. It helped the carrier maintain a maximum of 400 passengers on each train. In pre-pandemic times, 3,000 boarded an eight-coach train at a time. The north-south line, India’s oldest rapid transit system, has the highest passenger density.

On Saturday, just like the pre-pandemic times, no e-passes were booked throughout the day. People, like 50-yearold trader Paritosh Talukdar, walked into Esplanade station and boarded a Kavi Subhas-bound train at 6pm by just swiping their smart cards. Tokens are still not being issued for fear of spreading the virus.
Both Metro authorities and the developers of the epass technology kept their fingers crossed over how things would unfold Saturday that is treated like a weekday, even though the normal office crowd is missing. Metro had clocked 1,06,920 passengers on the previous Saturday, December 12. This Saturday, there was a 14.2% increase in footfall till 7pm.
“Today, we were closely following the commuting trend. Much to our relief, even without the e-passes, people stuck to social distancing norms,” said Sanjay Chatterjee, who was appointed by the state government to develop the e-pass technology for Metro Railway.
The 14% increase was well within limits, officials said. Metro can easily accommodate more than 1,50,000 commuters with its current 216 daily services (of a total 288).
In pre-pandemic times, 6,50,000 rode every day. From now on, e-passes won’t be required on Sundays either. Last Sunday, only 43,586 rode the Metro.
Over the last few weeks, Metro Railway — in its bid to inch towards the old normal — has been easing e-pass norms. Since last Monday, epass hours were reduced to two-and-a-half in the morning and three in the evening. So, cops and RPF personnel were only guarding the entry gates between 8.30am and 11am and then from 5pm and 8pm. The elderly, women and kids below 15 years, are already exempt from e-passes.
No e-passes have been mandated for Line 2 or the East-West Metro. Only 570 rode the city’s new Metro on Friday. There are no East-West Metro services on Sundays.