Passengers availing suburban trains from Sealdah North station are anticipating more comfortable journeys soon. The Sealdah division of Eastern Railway is to kick off the modification works of four platforms at the North section of Sealdah station to accommodate more numbers of 12-coach EMUs.
The announcement comes following an interaction campaign of the ER where passengers shared their views on announcements, delays in trains, illegal shops, problems due to unauthorized occupants. During the campaign, passengers’ main demands were found to be trains running properly, arrival of trains at the right platform and all local trains to be of 12 coaches, especially in rush hour, morning and evening.
According to the Eastern Railway, almost all the EMU locals in the Sealdah South section are of 12 coaches. Sealdah Main and North sections are yet to accommodate all EMU locals with 12 coaches. This is because the platform length needs to be changed at several places along with modernizing the signaling system and modification of yard layout at some places that are time-consuming works requiring traffic blocks.
As informed by the zonal railway, during office hours, most of the 12-coach EMUs are run in the Sealdah North section. Of the 134 pairs of up and down EMU trains on the Sealdah South section, 132 pairs are 12 coach EMUs. In Sealdah North, out of 186 up trains, 88 are 12-coach trains and 88 out of 188 down trains are 12-coach trains. Most of these 12 coaches EMU locals are operational during peak hours.
The divisional railway is planning to start work on increasing the length of platforms of platform numbers one, two, three and four. For this, the ground is to be dug and the platform needs to be rebuilt. As informed by the ER, the excavation and lengthening of the four platforms are to begin on 18 February.