Kolkata: The experimental night Metro service from 10:40 pm instead of 11 pm will start from Monday. Available on weekdays, Metro authorities are hoping that the change in late night service time will help in attracting more passengers.
The change in timing was brought in after Metro authorities observed that only 300 passengers on an average were availing each train at night. These services on both Up and Down directions will ply from Kavi Subhash and Dum Dum stations at 10:40 pm from Monday to Friday.
Considering the request by passengers to extend Metro’s operational time, the special service was introduced but the revenue earned from plying two trains was Rs 6,000, which is a meagre amount according to Metro authorities considering they are having to cough up about Rs 2.7 lakh as running cost along with Rs 50,000 as other expenses.
“It was observed that in many stations only one or two tokens on an average are being sold from counters to the commuters willing to avail these experimental night services,” the authorities stated.
Metro authorities informed that no ticket counter will remain open to issue tokens and Smart Cards at all stations. Commuters can purchase tokens from the ASCRM machines installed at all stations by using UPI payment mode. Considering the criticism that passengers were unaware of the Metro gate which will remain open for the night service, they also informed the number of gates which will remain open for each of the 23 Metro stations on Blue Line. At Dum Dum two gates, gate number one (north side gate) and gate number four (south side gate) will remain open while at Belgachia gate number one (Milk Colony gate) and gate number three (Rajbari gate) will remain open. For stations like Chandni Chowk, Esplanade and Park Street, three gates each will remain open. All gates will remain open at Netaji, Masterda Surya Sen, Gitanjali, Kavi Nazrul, Sahid Kudhiram and Kavi Subhash.