Officials discuss COVID-19 protocols for resuming Kolkata Metro services

Kolkata: Top brass of the Metro Railway and state government met on Thursday to discuss the modalities of putting in place social distancing norms and crowd management for the resumption of services.

Following a request from the Bengal government, the authorities are strongly contemplating to run trains on the day of the NEET examination on September 13.

Though the state government has given relaxation to resume Metro services from September 8, the same would take place from either September 14 or 15 following completion of all the necessary arrangements.

The matter related to initiating the Metro service in a graded manner has been thoroughly discussed in the meeting held at Nabanna. Chief Secretary Rajiva Sinha, Home Secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay, Health Secretary NS Nigam and Commissioner of Police Anuj Sharma were present with three senior officials of the Kolkata Metro.

Sources added that there was also discussion on running the services for 12 hours, from 8 am to 8 pm. But the final decision on every aspect will be taken following another meeting between the two, scheduled to be held at Metro Bhavan at Friday noon. The decision on whether the service will be made available on Sundays is yet to be taken.

Metro Railway spokesperson Indrani Banerjee said: "The main focus of today's meeting was on crowd control and there was thorough discussion in this regard."

The state government on Thursday assured all support to the Metro authorities to resume the services mainly in controlling the crowd. The Metro authorities have already decided not to issue tokens and only smartcard holders can avail the service. But the possibility of overcrowding still remains. So the support of Kolkata Police has been sought for manning the entry and exit points when only two gates at each station will be opened.

There will also be a discussion on the total number of people to be allowed in the platforms at a time during Friday's meeting and as per the preliminary discussion, passengers will be allowed to travel only on one-third of the total seating capacity of a Metro train.