Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday demanded more local trains to prevent crowding, echoing doctors and public health experts.

“They should run more trains so that people are not too close to each other. More trains would mean less crowding,” the chief minister told a news conference at Nabanna.

The state government and the railways will hold a meeting on Thursday at Bhabani Bhavan to review the situation. Sources in the state administration said the top brass had felt that the number of trains and compartments needed to be increased to ensure Covid protocols, especially physically distancing, could be maintained during rush hours.

“We will ask the railway authorities to increase the number of trains, number of compartments in a train and the number of ticket counters so that Covid protocols could be followed properly. We don’t want Covid to spread rapidly following the resumption of suburban train services,” said a government official.

The chief secretary, home secretary, health secretary, transport secretary and top police officers will attend the meeting, along with officials of the Eastern Railway and South Eastern Railway.

Close to 700 daily trains will run for now, railway officials had said before the resumption of services on Wednesday. Around 1,500 local trains used to run every day before the Covid-19 pandemic forced suspension of suburban services in March.

On November 7, Metro had reported on the concern of doctors on a curtailed fleet of local trains. Less trains will mean more people, both on platforms and on trains, risking a surge in Covid cases.

Pulmonologist Ajoy Krishna Sarkar had said the local train services “should either be totally suspended or the full fleet should be run”.

“A limited number of trains will automatically result in more passengers on each train,” he had said.

On the first day of resumption of suburban services, the crowd on some trains during office hours showed the fear was not misplaced.

Howrah and Sealdah divisions accounted for around 35 lakh passengers every day, most of whom were daily commuters. The crowd seemed less than usual on the first day of resumption but the numbers are expected to go up.

During office hours, around 4,000 people used to travel on every single train before the pandemic. On Wednesday, the number seemed around 2,000, said a railway official.

More trains on Wednesday would have distributed the load and could have added a semblance of physical distancing.

Talks had been on between the railways and the state government to run around “10 to 15 per cent” of the usual fleet. The services, however, resumed with around half the usual number.

Railway officials said they preferred a “need-based” rise in the number of trains. They pointed to “around 280 trains” that ran in the Howrah division, instead of 202 trains notified earlier. Similarly, the Sealdah division saw more than the number of trains notified.

“To ease the rush, we will run additional trains on busy routes as and when needed,” said an official of Eastern Railways.