Delay in local train services in Sealdah irks passengers

Kolkata: Passenger woes in Sealdah North and Main section continued on Monday as many complained of a delay in local train services.

From midnight of June 7 to noon of June, Sealdah Division had regulated train movements due to infrastructural work at Sealdah Railway Station.

Non-Interlocking work with regards to infrastructural development at Sealdah Railway Station had started from June 7 and completed on June 9 noon. Platforms 1 to 5 of Sealdah station are being extended to accommodate 12-coach EMUs. During this period, 147 services out of 806 were short terminated and short originated. Local train passengers had complained of overcrowding while superfast trains like New Delhi-Sealdah Rajdhani Express were delayed by about three hours.

On Monday, local trains were delayed by about half-an-hour on a few routes. According to a Habra local passenger, the distance which is usually covered in half an hour, took around one hour. The commuter said that he chose not to travel from Friday to Sunday considering the situation but was disappointed when the delays continued on Monday as well. He claimed that punctuality was also a problem in the route.

According to a Railway official, the situation will be normalised from Tuesday. Trains had started arriving at platform one to five of Sealdah station from Sunday noon. Following the successful completion of the Non-Interlocking work, the first train, 31518 Shantipur – Sealdah local, arrived at platform number five at 1:18 pm and an EMU special train also arrived at platform number 1 at 1:42 pm.