Kolkata: The maiden trial run on Taratala-Majerhat stretch of Joka-Esplanade Metro Corridor was conducted on January 13. The General Manager of Metro Railway P. Uday Kumar Reddy had earlier said that the work mentioned has reached an advanced stage.
The maiden trial run was conducted smoothly, according to officials. The AC trial rake (MR-417) started from Taratala station at 12:16 pm and reached Majerhat station at 12:19 pm. The distance between two stations is 1.25 kilometres. The same rake returned from Majerhat at 12:43 pm and reached Taratala at 12:46 pm.
The rake was taken out from Joka Depot which has been built for rake stabling and maintenance work. During the trial run, the rake travelled with a maximum speed of 50 kilometre per hour. Chief Project Manager of Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL) Harsimran Singh and other officials were present during this trial run. Reddy congratulated the officers and staff of Metro and RVNL team for this successful completion of the maiden trial run.
“We want to start the route with a signalling system. We are working on it and it will be opened soon,” Reddy said during a press conference on Friday. He also revealed that the operational section of Purple Line, which is Joka to Taratala, gets 500 passengers per day.
The Metro Railway expects the number to rise after the operational stretch is extended to Majerhat.
After a detailed analysis was conducted by Metro officials to study the pattern of footfall in Joka-Taratala stretch, the services were doubled from May last year.
A total of 24 daily services were operated instead of 12, which also helped in reducing the frequency from 60 minutes to 40 minutes. However, there is no service on Saturday and Sunday on this stretch.
In the operational section of Purple Line, the first metro leaves from Joka at 8:55 am and last at 4:20 pm while the first metro from Taratala leaves at 9:20 am and last at 4:40 pm.
There are six stations on this stretch–Joka, Thakurpukur, Sakher Bazar,
Behala Chowrasta, Behala Bazar and Taratala.