A meeting between officials of Metro Railway and the state government on Thursday could not finalise the date of resumption of commercial services.
A date and other modalities are likely to be announced after another round of meeting on Friday, said state government and Metro officials. “Today’s meeting was positive. The state government has assured us of all help. But some operational modalities are yet to be finalised,” said a Metro official.
The state government has requested Metro Railway to run trains on September 13 for NEET aspirants, said the official. “A similar request has also come from Delhi. If commercial services do not resume until September 13, we are likely to run at least some trains for students on that day,” the official said.
The focus of Thursday’s meeting was social distancing and crowd control, the two key areas where Metro Railway needs the help of local police.
“The idea is to ensure crowd management at the surface gates of stations which are the first entry points. Subsequent checks will be in place at the concourse and on the platform but controlling the crowd at the entry points will be crucial,” said Indrani Banerjee, Metro spokesperson.
Once the number of passengers is controlled at the main entrance, the job of managing them at the concourse and on the platform will automatically be easier, said Metro officials. “The RPF can keep a check on passengers on the platform or train but we need the help of the police at the main gates,” said an official.
The Unlock 4 guidelines of the Union home ministry had given a green signal for “graded” resumption of Metro services from September 7. The state government had said Metro trains can run in Calcutta from September 8. The entire state will be under lockdown on September 7.
The proposals discussed at Thursday’s meeting included keeping only a couple of gates open at every station (one for entry and one for exit) and allowing only a fixed number of people on each train, said another official.
The proposals are in alignment with the standard operating procedures announced by the Union urban affairs ministry on Wednesday and a protocol released by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation on Thursday.
A section of Metro officials in Calcutta said each train “should not carry more than 400-450 passengers”. The normal seating capacity of an eight-coach Metro train is around 400.
The state government’s team included the home secretary, transport secretary and the Calcutta police commissioner. Metro Railway was represented at Thursday’s meeting by the assistant general manager, chief operations manager and the chief security commissioner.