Kolkata: Railway authorities are keen to resume local train services in Bengal allowing 50 per cent of passenger strength and ensuring that COVID-19 safety protocols are followed strictly, officials said after a high-level meeting with top state government officers at Nabanna on Monday.
Initially, they were targeting to resume the operations with 10-15 per cent of the normal services which will be slowly increased to 25 per cent, they said.
The final decision on the resumption of local train services will be taken at a meeting with the state government on November 5.
Giving priority to the maintenance of Covid protocols, it has been preliminarily discussed to run the sub-urban trains with 50 per cent of its actual passenger capacity that will ensure the maintenance of physical distancing norms. In a joint Press conference with senior officers of both Eastern and South-Eastern Railways, Chief Secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay said: "As discussed, there is around 1,200 seating capacity in a sub-urban train. For the time being, 600 passengers will be allowed to travel at a time."
Though initially, the service will resume with 10 to 15 per cent of the total number of trains that used to run earlier, it will be gradually scaled up to 25 per cent. In the pre-Covid period, the per day footfall at Sealdah and Howrah Stations used to be 35 lakh. Eastern Railway used to run 915 sub-urban trains from Sealdah and 405 trains from Howrah Station. The South Eastern Railway used to run 190 sub-urban trains.
He further said wearing a mask while travelling in a train is a must besides thermal checking of passengers and proper sanitation programme. "The Railway authorities will be preparing a detailed plan of action in the next two to three days. Subsequent discussion to finalise all modalities to resume the service with better coordination between the concerned authorities including state administration and police with the Railway authorities will take place at 4.30 pm on November 5," Bandyopadhyay said.
Anit Dulat, Additional General Manager of Eastern Railway, added: "Resumption of the service requires a little bit of planning so that all Covid protocol is maintained. Subsequent decisions will be taken in the next meeting."
Details on routes to make the services available, stations where the trains will stop and crowd management will be finalised in the next meeting. The state government has urged the Railway authorities to decide on them.
The chances of introducing a compulsory e-pass system for sub-urban trains, like that of Kolkata Metro (North-South corridor), is less. The reason being many may get deprived of availing the service failing to use the online platform. However, a final decision in this regard is yet to be taken.
The Bengal government is approving the resumption of the rail services considering the distress that people are facing. But at no cost will the spread of infection be allowed. So the Railway authorities have been directed to take proper care of health issues and also assured all support from its end.
Meanwhile, there were a series of agitations at various railway stations in Hooghly, including Baidyabati and Rishra demanding the resumption of the suburban train services. The situation even turned worse at Baidyabati where people continued agitation till late night and even adjacent GT Road was also blocked at certain places.