1st time in last 2 years: Daily footfall in North-South Metro breaches 6L-mark

KOLKATA: Ahead of Durga Puja, the footfall in the North-South corridor of Kolkata Metro for the first time in two years crossed the six lakh-mark on Monday.

On Monday, the metro ran 288 services from Dakshineswar to Kavi Subhash. According to the information shared by metro officials, the footfall on Monday stood at 6,20,832. The maximum footfalls were recorded at Dum Dum with 78, 197 commuters and then at Esplanade with 50, 330 commuters, followed by Rabindra Sadan with 42, 257 commuters.

Last time the metro had witnessed footfall above six lakh was on March 6, 2020. On that day, 6, 13, 542 passengers travelled in the North-South metro.

Meanwhile, the East-West metro carried 40, 299 passengers on Monday.

The three metro stations, which saw a spike in footfall and contributed massively to the six lakh-mark, are also shopping hubs.

Near Esplanade lies New Market, which is witnessing huge crowd of shoppers ahead of Durga Puja, which is going to take place between October 1 and October 5.

The Rabindra Sadan metro station is also located near shopping malls and AC market, which has been flooded by people looking for clothes, decor and footwear products to buy ahead of Puja.

After 2019, the city is again witnessing people stepping out and crowding popular markets across Kolkata. For the past two years—2020 and 2021, Durga Puja was celebrated with many restrictions considering the Covid cases being recorded. However, this year, the grandeur of Puja seems to have made its way back to the city with much more intensity. Estimating a huge crowd of commuters, the officials have decided on plying metro services all night till 5 am on selective days like Saptami, Ashtami and Navami in the North South Corridor. They have also identified the vulnerable stations like Sovabazar, Esplanade and Dum Dum amongst others to ensure enforcement of agencies for the protection of commuters.