East-West Metro gets ready to chug into central Kolkata – Times of India

Kolkata News
The station, built 17 metre below the ER station, is the third most important stop for the 16km stretch, after Esplanade and Howrah

KOLKATA: With the Sealdah extension, East-West Metro timings are likely to have a complete overhaul from Thursday. Instead of the existing 8am-to-8pm operation hours, a revised schedule is being worked out, so that the first train from Sealdah can leave at 6.55am and that from Sector V at 7am. The last train from Sealdah may leave at 9.35pm and from Sector V at 9.40pm.
On an average, East-West Metro barely registers a daily footfall of 3,000 passengers. So, there is no East-West service on weekends. When Sealdah is added, Saturday services could be reintroduced. But Sunday operations will continue to remain suspended for now, officials said.
Trains will be available every 15 minutes during peak hours and at 20-minute interval for the rest of the day. This means that one can board a train after every 15 minutes from 9am till 11.30am. During lean hours, the frequency will be 20 minutes. East-West Metro trains now ply at 30-minute interval.
Total number of services works out to 100 (50 in each direction) from Thursday. Currently, there are 48 trains between Sector V and Phoolbagan (24 Up and 24 Down).
The state-of-the-art East-West Metro, which was started in phases in March 2020, currently runs a truncated 6.6km from Sector V to Phoolbagan with seven stations. Union women and child development and minority affairs minister Smriti Irani is due to commission the eighth station, Sealdah, on Monday, taking the city’s Green Line’s run to 9.1km. But Kolkatans can board the trains to Sealdah only from Thursday.
Metro Railway, which operates Line 1 (the North-South Metro) and Line 2 (East-West Metro), aims to have more or less similar operation hours for both corridors, post East-West Metro’s crucial 2.3km Sealdah extension. Currently, North-South Metro operates from 6.50 am till 9.40 pm with 288 services between Kavi Subhas and Dakshineswar. East-West Metro now has a third of the services available on the North-South line. “We will add more services along East-West Metro, according to the footfalls,” Metro Railway’s general manager Arun Arora said.
From Thursday, four BEML-make rakes will be commissioned for a smooth run between Sector V and Sealdah. A fifth will be kept on standby. Currently, there are two BEML rakes running between Sector V and Phoolbagan with a third on standby.

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Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/east-west-metro-gets-ready-to-chug-into-central-kolkata/articleshow/92790269.cms