Sunday morning Metro sevices

Kolkata: On an experimental basis, the Metro Rail services began from 11.30 am in Kolkata on Sunday, but the authorities were not encouraged by the footfall.

Generally, Metro services are available from 2 pm on Sundays.

“From 11.30 am to 2 pm, 15,424 passengers boarded the trains. But we were expecting more. The passenger turnout during the peak hours on Sunday does not appear to be very encouraging for us,” said Pranab Datta, spokesperson of the Metro Rail.

Though the authorities were not encouraged with today’s response, they plan to run the service again on next Sunday (March 29).

Datta added that usually around 1 to 1.5 lakh passengers use the service between 2 pm and 9 pm on Sundays.

The passengers, on the other hand, seem to welcome the idea with a few even assuming that the facility had already been started.

“Earlier, for any emergency, we used to take buses or cabs to reach our destinations on Sundays. But if Metros are available, the difficulties in travelling in the city will be reduced to a great extent,” said Abhishek Basu, a passenger who boarded the Metro at Dum Dum to reach Esplanade. Meanwhile, the Metro Rail authorities are not still sure whether the service will be introduced permanently for Sunday mornings.

“We are still sceptical about starting the service at 11.30 on Sundays. We have to study the response of the passengers for another week. We have to judge whether it will be viable for us. At present, we have just conducted a trial run on two consecutive Sundays,” said Datta.