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Metro sees spike in footfall, expects it to go up further

Metro sees spike in footfall, expects it to go up further
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kolkata: After two years of strict Covid protocols, people have come out in the streets for the purpose of Puja shopping. This has led to an increased footfall in the Metro, according to the concerned authorities.

The Metro authorities said that the footfall is expected to increase further this week.

On Saturday, North-South metro corridor witnessed a footfall of 4.62 lakh and East-West metro witnessed 25, 560 commuters. "The footfall in the North-South Corridor was slightly less on Saturday as compared to other days when the footfall reached around 5.71 lakh. The drop in footfall was due to Vishwakarma Puja," a senior metro official said. On September 10 (Saturday) and September 11 (Sunday), the North-South corridor had witnessed 5, 18, 044 and 2, 87, 140 commuters, respectively.

Meanwhile, just a few days ahead of the Puja, Metro Railway on Sunday morning conducted a passenger evacuation mock drill in between Esplanade and Park Street Metro stations to check the preparedness of Metro staff to tackle any fire incident in an AC rake. The senior officers and staff of concerned departments took part in the drill. During this drill, metro men were also imparted training on how to take immediate and necessary action to rescue commuters in case of a fire. In a meeting held by the General Manager of Metro Railway Arun Arora on Friday, he appealed to the commuters to switch over to metro recharge cards to avoid long queues at ticket counters. However, tokens will also be available. He advised the commuters not to hurry while catching trains amid the crowd. "If more services are required, we will add it," Arora said.

On the security front, Arora said that vulnerable locations like Kalighat, Dum Dum and Sovabazar, amongst others have been identified and in these places the presence of Railway Protection Force (RPF) will strengthen in coordination with Kolkata Police.

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