The East-West Metro is allegedly keeping most of its ticket counters shut along its newly-opened Howrah Maidan-Esplanade stretch during peak hours because it is unable to bear the huge load with its present schedule and set-up.
Several passengers, using the East-West or Green Line, between Howrah Maidan and Esplanade, alleged that they have to wait for up to 20 minutes at the counters for tickets. Even though there are several counters, most remain closed.
Sources in the Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation (KMRC), the implementing agency for the project that, once complete, will connect Howrah Maidan with Sector V, said the counters are not operational because if too many passengers get into the platform at once, the trains would be overcrowded and there could be chaos.
“In peak hours, there is a gap of 12 minutes between two trains. In non-peak hours, the interval is 15 minutes. If too many passengers get into the platform, then there could be overcrowding and chaos,” said a source in KMRC.
Only six-odd ticket counters out of 29 were operational at Howrah Metro station on Friday afternoon.
The station has provisions for 32 ticket counters, three of which are for suburban trains.
According to KMRC officials, Howrah Metro station is designed to handle around 60,000 passengers in one hour during the peak time of the day, out of which 44,000 are for the peak direction.
Now, the station is handling a little more than 20,000 passengers through the day.
Mahakaran station has 29 counters, out of which on an average six are operational during the day, said sources.
The station is designed to handle around 36,000 passengers in one hour during the peak time, with 24,000 in the peak direction.
The station recorded a footfall of 91,000 passengers between March 15, when the Howrah Maidan-Esplanade section became operational, and March 31. This means, on an average, the station is having a footfall of 6,000 passengers everyday.
“I had to stand for nearly 20 minutes in the queue at Howrah station for getting a ticket. Only four to five counters were operational and many were closed. Many passengers were irritated and asking the authorities to open more counters, but there was no response,” alleged a passenger.
KMRC officials said it was not possible at this point to increase the number of trains.
Now, a train takes around 11 minutes. At each station, it stops for 20-30 seconds.
Between Howrah Maidan and Esplanade, trains run on both to-and-fro tunnels.
“Since the full section has not been commissioned yet (the link between Esplanade and Sealdah is being built), trains cannot complete one leg of the trip, then switch tracks and come back. They run on the same track,” said an official.
For now, two rakes are being used for commercial runs between Howrah Maidan and Esplanade.
“Since there is no provision for trains to switch tracks, we cannot have more than one train on each track,” the official said.
The East-West fleet has 14 trains, made by BEML and each having six coaches.
Once the Howrah Maidan-Sector V stretch is fully operational, then the trains will be operated in less than five minutes frequency, said officials.
“Now, we are running trains at intervals of 12 and 15 minutes. When the full stretch is ready, we have plans to reduce the interval. Then, the passenger count will also rise to a great extent and we will need more counters. Till, on a case-to-case basis, we may add one or two more counters,” said a Metro official.