Commuters travelling on the Sealdah to Salt Lake Sector V stretch of the East-West Metro would now be able to enjoy faster services. The Kolkata Metro Railway is to operate commercial services between Sealdah and Salt Lake Sector V on a new timetable with running time of 17 and 18 minutes instead of the existing 20 minutes. From tomorrow, the EastWest Metro is to operate services in the stretch on a revised time table. The revised schedule is to be followed on weekdays from Monday to Friday. On Saturdays, Metro services in the stretch would be run as per the existing time table.
Notably, the change in the existing time table comes following an upgradation in technology in the Sealdah and Salt Lake Sector V stretch. The East-West Metro Corridor is equipped with the Communication Based Train Control System (CBCTC). This system consists of Automatic Train Protection (ATP) and Automatic Train Operation (ATO). Services in the two stretches of the Green Line including Sealdah and Salt Lake Sector V and Esplanade and Howrah Maidan were so far being run on the Automatic Train Protection (ATP).
While running on the ATP system, the Sealdah and Salt Lake Sector V stretch had received the mandatory clearance for operating trains on ATO technology from the commissioner of railway safety in the month of January. The metro authorities have now decided to operate services on the ATO system. The adoption of the new technology would help in saving the running time by two minutes in the Westbound line between Salt Lake Sector V to Sealdah where the running time will be 18 minutes instead of the present 20 minutes.
In the East-bound direction from Sealdah to Salt Lake Sector V, the running time is to be reduced by three minutes to 17 minutes instead of the present 20. Even as the time table is being revised, the carrier has not made any changes in the number of services. With the new time-table, the timing of the first service has been changed to 7.05 am instead of 7 am from Salt Lake Sector V to Sealdah. The timings of the first and last services from both directions have been kept unchanged by the city metro authorities.