61 more trains added to suburban rail services

Kolkata: In a bid to manage passenger rush efficiently, the Eastern Railway has started running 61 additional local trains in Sealdah division from Monday.

The local train services resumed with 615 services (413 local train services in Sealdah Division and 202 in the Howrah Division) and 81 services under Eastern Railway and South Eastern Railway respectively on November 11.

The South Eastern Railway had increased the EMU services from 81 to 95 to maintain proper physical distance from November 17.

"Today (November 23), we started running 613 local trains in the Sealdah Division (North and South Section)," said an official of Eastern Railway.

The official pointed out that the train services were increased from 413 to 552 in the Sealdah Division previously.

At present, 600 passengers are being allowed to travel at a time in a train having a seating capacity of 1200 to ensure maintenance of physical distance.

The zonal railway division is witnessing increasing demand for suburban train services.

"In the Sealdah Division, the total passenger count was 7, 70, 663 on November 22. On November 21, the passenger count was 6, 59, 120," pointed out the official.

Following the resumption of local trains, there has been a growing demand from passengers and railway staff to restart services in Purulia, Adra, Bankura, and so on.

According to sources, a passenger fell ill when a stampede like situation occurred as he couldn't come out of the station due to barricades on Monday evening. He was rushed to NRS hospital, where he was declared brought dead.