Metro officials chalk out modalities to resume services
Kolkata: The Kolkata Metro Railway officials on Tuesday conducted a meeting at Metro Rail Bhavan in connection with the preparedness of commencement of services after being shut for over six months because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The meeting was conducted a day after the State government issued a notification mentioning Metro Rail will be permitted to run in a graded manner with effect from September 8.
"Manoj Joshi, General Manager, Metro Railway reviewed the sanitisation work of Metro stations and rakes at a high level meeting held at Metro Rail Bhavan today. During this meeting, attended by senior officers of Metro Railway, he instructed the concerned departments to sanitize all stations and rakes of Metro Railway regularly to stop the spread of COVID-19," said Kolkata Metro Railway chief public relations officer Indrani Banerjee. She reiterated that after receiving the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) the Metro Railway officials will sit for a meeting with state government officials and then the metro services will resume. However, East-West Metro corridor's Phoolbagan station is expected to see its inauguration soon once metro rail services resume.
"The infrastructure of the Phoolbagan station is complete. The Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS) had already inspected East-West Metro's 3km stretch from Salt Lake Stadium till the Sealdah crossover and the underground Phoolbagan station," said an official.
East West Metro corridor, which will connect Salt Lake Sector V with Howrah Maidan, is 16.6 km long. The East West Metro has 12 stations – Howrah Maidan, Howrah, Mahakaran, Esplanade, Sealdah, Phoolbagan, Salt Lake Stadium, Bengal Chemical, City Center, Central Park, Karunamoyee and Salt lake Sector V.
The first phase of East West Metro connecting the city's tech hub of Salt Lake Sector V with the Yuva Bharati Krirangan (Salt Lake Stadium) was inaugurated by Railway minister Piyush Goyal on February 13, 2020.
