The Eastern Railway authorities are unlikely to opt for galloping local train services and considering running 25 per cent of local trains on an average and additional number of services in suburban sections during morning and evening peak hours.

Before the lockdown, the two zonal railways operated around 1,530 local trains in various sections of the state– ER operated around 913 trains in Sealdah Division and about 430 trains in Howrah Division.

The remaining around 194 trains were run by the South Eastern Railway. According to a source, the rush in ER suburban trains is comparatively more than that of the South Eastern Railway. Therefore, even as the South Eastern Railway might consider galloping trains, the Eastern Railway is unlikely to opt for such services.

“Any scope of galloping local train services in sections including Howrah-Bandel in Howrah division or up to Ranaghat and Barasat in Sealdah Division is unlikely, as these are really crowded places and such services can bring inconvenience to passengers. Considering the fact, Eastern Railway might consider connecting all sections including Bandel, Katwa, Burdwan main and chord lines, Takreshwar, Canning, Bongaon, Budge Budge, Hasnabad, Ranaghat, Lalgola, Krishnanagar and so on. However, the number of trains will be restricted to about 25 per cent on an average, in times other than peak hours. While 40 to 50 per cent of the average percentage of trains are likely to be operated during morning and evening peak period,” informed a railway official.

Apart from this, the zonal railways will continue to run the staff special trains for their employees and might also open the doors of the vendor compartments.

The state government and the zonal railways are said to be thinking over ways to ensure physical distancing inside coaches, mechanism to control the crowd, thermal scanning of passengers at railway stations and allowing hawkers, as these would require huge manpower additionally.Focus is also being given on creating awareness among the general public.

The officials of the state government and the representatives of the Railways including divisional railway managers of Howrah, Sealdah and Kharagpur met for a second consecutive day at Nabanna today. While another meeting between state government and the representatives of the zonal railways to discuss the modalities is to take place tomorrow at the state secretariat.

While the local train services, according to sources, is expected to start from the next week, a decision on the date is yet to be taken while the standard operating procedures are also to be finalised.