A Metro ride across the Hooghly will become part of Kolkata’s everyday transport map from March 15.
Commercial services on the Howrah Maidan-Esplanade section will start that day, the Metro railway announced on Saturday.
Services on two other lines — New Garia-Ruby and Joka-Majerhat — will also begin that day.
There will be no trains on Sundays on the Howrah Maidan-Esplanade section, which is a small but crucial part of the East-West metro, also called the Green Line, connecting Howrah Maidan and Salt Lake’s Sector V.
The New Garia-Ruby section, which is part of the Orange Line (New Garia-Airport) will have no trains on Saturdays and Sundays.
The same schedule will be followed in the Joka-Majerhat section that is part of the Purple Line (Joka-Esplanade). At present, trains run between Joka and Taratala.
The three sections were ceremonially launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday.
“The commercial services on the three sections will begin from March 15,” said P. Uday Kumar Reddy, the general manager of Metro Railway.
The Saturday-Sunday off has already raised questions. A Howrah resident said it was absurd to not have any trains on Sunday in the Howrah Maidan-Esplanade line.
Timings
The first train from both Howrah Maidan and Esplanade will start at 7am and the last train at 9.45pm.
The gap between two trains will be 12 minutes and 15 minutes depending on the hour of the day. Trains will run at
gaps of 15 minutes from 7am-9am, 11am-5pm and 8pm-9.45pm. Trains will run at intervals of 12 minutes from 9am-11am and 5pm-8pm.
The East-West Metro’s foundation stone was laid 15 years ago. It is now operational between Sealdah and Sector V.
After the Howrah Maidan- Esplanade stretch sees commercial runs, only the 2.5km Esplanade-Sealdah stretch will be left of the line.
The commercial run between Howrah Maidan and Esplanade will make a big difference in how people living cross the river commute to the heart of Kolkata. People travelling between the two cities had to navigate congested roads or take a ferry service, often waiting in long queues.
People from Howrah travelling to any part of Kolkata, and vice-versa, can also hop on to the north-south line (New Garia-Dakshineswar) at Esplanade.
In the New Garia-Ruby section, trains will run at intervals of 20 minutes through the day, with the first train at 9am and the last one at 4.40pm.
In the Joka-Majerhat section, trains will run at intervals of 25 minutes, with the first train from both ends starting at 8.30am and the last one at 3.35pm.
A Metro official said they were open to tweaking the timings if the passenger count was high.
The New Garia-Ruby section and the Joka-Majerhat section are not yet equipped with the CBTC (communications-based train control) system, a reason for having few services in a day. Both sections received the nod from the chief commissioner of railway safety for a “one train-only system”.
“It means two trains can now run simultaneously, one in each direction,” said a Metro official.
Number of trains
A metro railway official said 130 trains will run on the Esplanade-Howrah Maidan section. One hundred and six trains now run between Sealdah and Sector V.
On the New Garia-Ruby section, only 48 trains will run in a day and on the Joka-Majerhat section, only 36 trains will run in a day.
Pocket pinch
The fares on both New Garia-Ruby and Joka-Majerhat links will be Rs 5, 10 and 20. On the Howrah Maidan-Esplanade section, it is Rs 5 and 10.
A journey from Howrah station to Ruby (Hemanta Mukherjee) station will cost Rs 50. The ticket will enable the passenger to access three different but connected Metro lines.
The passenger will board a Green Line train from Howrah and get down at Esplanade. From Esplanade, she will board a Blue Line (north-south corridor) train to New Garia. From there, she will board an Orange Line train to Ruby.
Sunday off
The Sunday off on the Howrah Maidan-Esplanade section has surprised many.
“There are fewer buses on Sundays. What is the point in not running the services on Sundays? There are many Howrah residents who visit Kolkata with their families on Sundays. Many from Kolkata also visit their relatives in Howrah on Sundays,” said a resident of Howrah’s Panchanantala.
There are no services on the now-running Sealdah-Sector V section on Sundays.
A Metro official said: “Our maintenance facility is in the (Salt Lake) Central Park depot. The rakes plying between Howrah Maidan and Esplanade will have to go to the Central Park depot for detailed inspections. The daily inspection will be done at Howrah Maidan. But a detailed inspection will be done once a week. On those days, the rakes have to cross the Bowbazar area through the east-bound tunnel. For this detailed inspection, we will not run trains once a week, on Sundays.”