The Howrah Division of Eastern Railway is conducting a survey at its stations to prepare for resumption of suburban trains.
Unlike suburban sections where stations are generally located far from one another, the distance between two railway stations in Kolkata at some places is lesser than three kilometres. Once services of suburban trains resume, there is likely to be a huge demand at most of the stations.
On the contrary, implementing Covid protocols will
be an uphill task if local train services are resumed normally.
Considering the fact, a team of officials are visiting railway stations under the Howrah division of Eastern Railway to take a note of ground situation and find out ways in
which implementing the Covid protocol could be possible on resumption of suburban train services. The team is emphasising on stations which could possibly be opened for services.
Since some of the stations have several platforms, a detailed study is being done to sketch out plans as to which ones could be used for arrival or departure or could be kept closed to passengers.
Options are being explored if stoppages at some of the stations having additional modes of transport other than local trains, could be omitted.
The internal committee
with three to four members responsible for the survey, is laying out a sketch of possible entry and exit points at the stations.
The internal survey will be done in a phased manner.The first phase survey report was submitted to the authorities.The second phase of the survey is underway.
“Nothing is finalised on resumption of local train services yet,” said a railway official. “Local train services will resume with a nod from the central authorities” he added