Rlys to run special trains from Kolkata to Puri ahead of Puja

Kolkata: With Durga Puja a month away, Kolkata Metro Railway has decided to resume its services on Sundays from October 4.

The decision comes following a high level meeting chaired by Kolkata Metro Railway general manager Manoj Joshi on Monday.

"During the meeting, we have decided to run Metro services on Sundays starting on October 4, 2020. The first Metro service will start from both ends at 10.10 a.m. and the last service will start at 07.30 pm," said an official.

On Sundays, Metro services will operate only in the North South corridor and not in East West Metro. 400 passengers will be accommodated in each train (including sitting and standing). Senior citizens need not have to download e-passes to travel on Sunday.

Kolkata Metro Railway services were suspended for almost seven months after lockdown was imposed in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic in March. It resumed services on September 14. Then it was decided to run metro services from Monday to Saturday.

The journey was different with only passengers with e-pass with QR code (downloaded from Metro's official website or Pathadisha app) and smartcards being allowed to travel. The total number of services was reduced to 110 instead of 288. This apart, the operations hours were changed from 8 am to 8 pm instead of 6:45 am to 9.55 pm.

On September 28, Kolkata Metro Railway started running three pairs of additional trains (110 to 116 trains) and extended operation hours (the last service extended from 8 pm to 8.30 pm).

Meanwhile, Eastern Railway has decided to run Sealdah- Bhubaneswar (Bi-weekly) special train upto Puri. 02201 Sealdah- Bhubaneswar special train leaving Sealdah will terminate at Puri with effect from October 2 and in the down direction 02202 Bhubaneswar- Sealdah special train will originate from Puri with effect from October 3.

All other stoppages and timings of the special train will remain the same.