Following regulation of trains at Sealdah station, where work is being carried out at five platforms, the state transport department has decided to run shuttle bus services to provide ease of travel to the commuters.
The divisional railway is carrying out the second phase of the infrastructure upgrade at Sealdah station. For this, train movements from platform one to five has been kept suspended to enable the commissioning of an electronic interlocking (EI) system with a dual VDU system from the RRI panel, along with the extension of platforms one to five to accommodate 12 coach trains.
For carrying out the works of the second phase, the divisional railway has decided to close platforms one to five from 2am today to 2pm on Sunday. Considering the situation, the railways decided to cancel more than 90 suburban trains, mainly in the north section. Along with the cancellations, the interval between two arriving local trains in the north and main sections has also been increased. Apart from this, of the total 806 suburban trains being operated during the block period, 147 services are being short-terminated/short-originated at Dum Dum Junction and Dum Dum Cantonment stations.
Following the regulations, Sealdah station was found overcrowded this morning. Local trains were found to have more crowds than usual with commuters, many of whom claiming to be unaware of the regulations. As several trains were short terminated at Dum Dum, queues of commuters were also seen at Dum Dum Metro station. Being a Saturday, the railway officials are hoping that the situation will improve tomorrow.
To minimize the woes of the commuters, the Sealdah division is running mostly 12-coach services in the north and main sections to accommodate the commuters. The division also wrote to the state transport department to provide feeder bus services from different locations on 8-9 June for the commuters. In response to the request, the transport department decided to run shuttle bus services of route number E-32 between Barrackpore station and Dunlop via Titagarh, Kharda, Panihati and Rathtala. Another bus service from Dum Dum Central Jail and Belgachia Metro is being operated via Nager Bazar, Shyamnagar, Lake Town crossing and Pati Pukur. With a crowd of commuters swelling at Dum Dum, Kolkata Metro Railway also operated four additional services to ease out the rush.
Meanwhile, a youth was allegedly injured after reportedly falling off a local train near Titagarh, this morning. The youth, who was said to be on his way to work at Sector V, later died at a local hospital reportedly. A senior railway official termed the death to be unfortunate. According to the official, the death, however, could not be related to the traffic block or the NI work.
According to the divisional railway office, the pre non-interlocking and non-interlocking work is continuing at Sealdah yard. The railway has involved a total of additional 400 skilled staff working round-the-clock for the non-interlocking work which will continue till Sunday.