With the city gearing up for the Yuletide celebrations, the Kolkata Metro Railway has decided to enhance security arrangements for the upcoming Christmas festival. The mass carrier is to strengthen its security arrangements at metro stations that generally witness a mammoth crowd during the festival. The metro stations include Esplanade, Park Street, Maidan, Rabindra Sadan and Dum Dum.
The Kolkata Metro Railway is to deploy well-trained railway protection force (RPF) personnel at all the entry and exit gates of these stations. The RPF authorities of the city metro would also make arrangements for an additional number of personnel at these stations to manage the anticipated crowd and provide proper guidance to the commuters on the day of the festival. Keeping in mind the women and children commuters at the epicenter of Christmas celebrations in Kolkata, women RPF officers and staff would be deployed at Park Street. Furthermore, a special team consisting of one sub-inspector/assistant sub-inspector and four staff including two women staff would also be deployed at Park Street, Maidan and Esplanade Metro stations on 25 December.
The team would be prepared to tackle any situations of emergency. Apart from this, another special team consisting of one officer and four staff would be deployed at Park Street Metro station on the day to manage the rush. The city metro would also carry out anti-sabotage checking at these stations. As informed by the office of the city Metro, for ensuring a real time situation, the railway would have an adequate number of staff posted at central control of NorthSouth Metro.
Meanwhile the carrier is to run late night services on the Blue Line on 25 December. On that day, services in the Blue Line are to start at 8.55 am from Dum Dum to Dakshineswar and at 9 am from Kavi Subhash to Dakshineswar, Dum Dum to Kavi Subhash and Dakshineswar to Kavi Subhash.
The last service is to be operated at 10.58 pm from Dakshineswar to Kavi Subhash instead of 9.28 pm and at 11 pm from Kavi Subhash to Dakshineswar instead of 9.30 pm. The last services from Dum Dum to Kavi Subhash and Dakshineswar to Kavi Subhash would be run at 11.10 pm instead of 9.40 pm by the Metro railway