Howrah: Trains parked at a railway yard after West Bengal Government suspended local train services
The Eastern Railway will recommence the suburban EMU and other local train services within its jurisdiction in West Bengal for the general public after nearly six months as per normal timetable from Monday maintaining COVID restrictions, an official said here on Sunday. It will run more than 920 services in the Sealdah division and more than 480 in the Howrah division in up and down directions, and ER officials said.
The West Bengal government in its latest order on containing the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, has allowed intra-state local train movement with 50 per cent seating capacity. The Eastern and South Eastern Railway has been running staff special trains in their respective zones.
Suburban EMU and other local train services were suspended by the West Bengal government from May 7 to check the spread of coronavirus during the second phase of the pandemic. "ER is all set to resume intra-state passenger train services including suburban EMU services with 50 per cent seating capacity as per the advice of Government of West Bengal," ER Spokesperson Ekalabya Chakraborty said.
"The number of local trains will be as it was before the onset of COVID in March 2020," he said.
Chakraborty said that sanitisation of train compartments, coach interiors and station premises with special emphasis on high contact areas were being done. The ER spokesperson had earlier told PTI that the Kolkata-headquartered zonal railway is ready to run local train services according to the regular timetable from November 1.
With the state government relaxing restrictions on local train movement from October 31 ER is running its services as per its holiday schedule on Sunday. Regarding ensuring that 50 per cent seating capacity is maintained as per the state government's directive, he said that the Eastern Railway will deploy RPF personnel and would also want the state administration to help in maintaining the restrictions on number of passengers.
The Eastern Railway carries the bulk of local and suburban passengers in its Howrah and Sealdah divisions, with lakhs of passengers depending on these train services for their daily commute.
South Eastern Railway, another zonal railway headquartered here, said that it was restarting its local train services in a phased manner in its Kharagpur division.
"In accordance with the advisory issued by the government of West Bengal, it has been decided by South Eastern Railway to restore its Suburban/EMU locals in a phased manner plying in Howrah-Kharagpur-Midnapur, Shalimar-Santragachi, Panskura-Haldia, Santragachi-Amta and Tamluk-Digha sections over Kharagpur Division with effect from October 31, 2021," an SER official said.
It decided to restore services of 48 EMU locals from Sunday, with 23 in the Up direction and 25 in the down direction, he said.
