A suicide at Chandni Chowk station crippled Metro services on the north-south route (Blue Line) for over two hours and threw traffic out of gear overground on Monday afternoon.
Thousands of passengers were stranded inside trains and on platforms on Calcutta’s transport lifeline. On the roads above, commuters scrambled to board already crowded buses. Many were forced to book app cabs and bikes despite a steep surge in fares.
“A man jumped in front of a Dakshineswar-bound train at Chandni Chowk station around 12.15pm. The driver tried applying the emergency brakes but it was too late. He was sandwiched between the edge of the platform and the undercarriage of the train. A lot of time was spent in retrieving the man from that position,” said a Metro spokesperson.
A power block was in place for the operation. The man was finally lifted to the platform around 2.15pm, he said. He was declared dead on arrival at Medical College Kolkata, police said.
The man, aged around 55, could not be identified till late on Monday evening, the police said.
The carrier ran truncated services between Dakshineswar and Girish Park in the north and between Maidan and Kavi Subhash (New Garia) in the south. But that was far from enough.
Services on the full stretch resumed around 2.25pm but the ripple effect lasted for at least 30 more minutes.
A 37-year-old woman entered Mahanayak Uttam Kumar (Tollygunge) to board a Dakshineswar-bound train around 12.15pm. She was headed to Central station. After waiting for around 20 minutes, she booked an app cab that charged around ₹450. Usually, the 8km ride costs ₹300.
A group of students boarded a train at New Garia and was supposed to get off at Park Street. They were headed to their college to collect admit cards for an upcoming exam. The announcements about the disruption prompted them to get off at Tollygunge.
“The train was stranded at Tollygunge for over 10 minutes,” said one of them. They boarded a crowded bus at Tollygunge.
Around 1.05pm, the platforms at Jatin Das Park and Rabindra Sadan stations were teeming with passengers. Scores of people were found standing outside Central, MG Road, Chandni Chowk and several other stations, waiting for an alternate mode of transport.
The public address system kept announcing the disruption and the truncated services.
“The Metro crowd spilled onto the roads above, trying to find an alternate mode of transport. That led to a rush for over an hour,” said an officer in the traffic department of Kolkata Police.
The police imposed traffic diversions. The vehicles headed north were diverted through Red Road from near the Birla Planetarium for an hour after the suicide. “We wanted to reduce the vehicular load on Chowringhee Road and Central Avenue,” the officer said.