Good news for city commuters. The New Garia-Ruby stretch of the Orange Line has received the safety clearance from the Chief Commissioner of Railway Safety (CCRS), for running commercial services.

The safety nod from the CCRS, which is mandatory for starting commercial services in new Metro lines, comes after the inspection by the CCRS, Janak Kumar Garg, yesterday.

Before the inspection, the CCRS held a high-level meeting with the senior officers of Metro Railway and Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL) at Kavi Subhash Metro station. After the meeting, he inspected the entry and exit gates, AFC-PC gates, station control room, escalators, lifts, signage boards, fire detection and suppression system, station buffer and other passenger amenities at this station. Later, he boarded a Metro and travelled up to Hemanta Mukhopadhyay station to check the electronic interlocking signalling system on this stretch. He also checked the crossover point beyond Hemanta Mukhopadhyay station which will enable it to reverse the rake once the commercial operations start.

After checking the reversal of the rake, he also inspected the station at Ruby.

Notably, this was the second CCRS inspection of the stretch in a year. Last year in February, a nod to start one train only system without any signal on this stretch was given by the CCRS. A year later, the safety nod has come for commissioning public carriage of passengers with electronic interlocking on both up and down lines of the truncated stretch with ‘One Train Only System.’

According to the city Metro office, the safety clearance received is valid for a period of one year.

The other Metro stretch between Taratala and Mejrhat that was also inspected by the CCRS this week, is yet to get a nod for commercial operations. The CCRS is said to have given some observations after conducting his inspection of Purple Line from Taratala to Majerhat on 4 February for running trains on EI signalling system. Mr Garg is said to have advised to display signage at proper locations, retro tapes in emergency pathways, provide additional handles at toilets for specially-abled or physically challenged persons and increase the overall number of CCTV cameras at Majerhat station. According to sources, the observations are mostly minor. It is therefore hoped that compliances of the recommendations in this stretch would be done in about two weeks paving way for the final approval from CCRS.

The third stretch between Howrah Maidan and Esplanade of the East-West Metro that also underwent a thorough inspection for two days this week would also have to comply with a few similar observations of the CCRS before getting a safety nod. The CCRS is said to have advised to put proper signage for guiding passenger movements of Eastern Railway from Howrah station to Howrah Metro station, put signage and markings at Divyangjan drop off points at all stations.