The lack of transport options because of the Covid-19 curbs is taking a heavy toll on people who are forced to step out of home for work.

Police are strictly enforcing the curbs, stopping almost every vehicle on the road. Till Tuesday night, Calcutta police had prosecuted 725 people and seized 286 private vehicles for allegedly violating Covid-related curbs.

Against such a backdrop, The Telegraph tracks the arduous journeys of some people who don’t have the luxury of working from home.

Long walk home

The 9km journey between his home near Dinabandhu Andrews College in Garia and his store near Gariahat is proving tougher by the day for a grocer.

Biswajit Saha, the owner of Laxmi Narayan Stores on Hindusthan Road, was walking home when Metro called him up around 1.15pm on Tuesday. He had reached near Jadavpur police station by that time. His business window is from 7am to 10am. But wrapping up business takes time.

“I left the store around 11.30am. I waited for almost an hour but did not get a bus. I started walking around 12.35pm,” said Saha. The temperature was around 38 degrees in the afternoon and the RealFeel almost 47 degrees.

Saha did not get a bus on the return journey on Monday as well. “I had managed to find a taxi. But it is not possible to pay a fortune every day,” he said.

Saha is desperately looking for a cycle to make his travel somewhat less taxing.

Train fine

Two residents of Ranaghat in Nadia, around 80km from the heart of Calcutta, work at a private bank in Rajarhat. On Tuesday, they boarded a Calcutta-bound “special train” from Ranaghat. The trains are meant to ferry railway employees. They got off at Ultadanga station, only to be confronted by RPF men.

They had to pay a fine of Rs 600 for “unauthorised travel”. They were released after senior officials of the bank went to the station and talked to the RPF.

“The banking system will crumble if these people don’t come to work. But they are being penalised for coming to work,” said an official who was part of the team that talked to the RPF officers.

Pedal power

A 48-year-old man who works at a sari store in Triangular Park lives in the interiors of Sonarpur in South 24-Parganas.

The store was closed on Sunday. Since Monday, he has been cycling to work and back, covering 14km each way. “Each trip takes me around 90 minutes. But it seems much more because of the heat,” said Kamalesh Sardar.

Sardar has no other option. He is the only earning member in the six-member family comprising his wife, two children and aged parents. “There are hardly any customers. But coming to work makes things look somewhat normal. Sitting at home will be worse,” said Sardar.

The sari shops dotting Gariahat and Rashbehari Avenue were deserted on Tuesday. Only a few had one or two customers inside. Several did not open. Sari shops are allowed to remain open from noon to 3pm.

Two is company

On Monday, a man rode a Scooty for around 150km, from one neighbouring district of Calcutta to another. The 28-year-old, who sells credit cards for a private bank, rode from his home in Joynagar, South 24-Parganas, to his branch in Nadia’s Phulia. The journey took him six hours via EM Bypass and then NH 12.

A woman, his neighbour and his college mate, works at a private diagnostic centre at Madhyamgram. “We came together till Madhyamgram, stopping at a couple of places for tea. The journey would have been more difficult had I been alone,” said the man.

Before local trains were suspended, he used to board a train from Joynagar to Sealdah, and another train from Sealdah to Phulia. One trip took around four hours.

The man has rented an accommodation in Phulia but has to travel home at least twice a week because he has an eight-month-old son at home.