‘Bhai Phonta’ celebrated with gusto in city
Eastern Railway opens add’l 42 unreserved ticket counters across Sealdah, Howrah divisions to manage the rush
After Kali Puja and Diwali, the city glamoured up to celebrate ‘Bhai Phonta’ with fervour on Wednesday as sisters prayed for their brothers’ long lives. The festival celebrates the bond between sisters and brothers.
Sisters applied ‘teeka’ or ‘phonta’ on their brothers’ foreheads and offered them sweets. The brothers in return give gifts to their sisters on the occasion. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee took to her social media to wish well to the citizens on the festive day.
Considering the surge in number of passengers travelling home for the festival, Eastern Railway (ER) opened additional 42 unreserved ticket counters across the Sealdah and Howrah divisions to manage the expected crowd. However, since it’s a holiday at most offices in the city, the number of private buses decreased by 30 to 40 per cent leading to longer waits for passengers in almost all city and suburban routes.
According to private bus operators, the number of buses running during the festive days like Kali Puja and ‘Bhai Phonta’ had gone down significantly because of lack of passengers and the lack of bus staff, including drivers and conductors. The services will return to normalcy from Monday onwards, a bus operator said.
“After 2 pm, fewer buses are found on the road as most do not want to go for second trips as the cost incurred by running the buses is more than the earnings,” the general secretary of City Suburban Bus Service Titu Saha said. According to a conductor of Golf Green-BT College bus route, 31 buses are plied on a daily basis but on ‘Bhai Phonta’, 17 buses were plied.
Metro Railway also ran lesser services on Wednesday. They plied 234 services, including 117 Up and 117 Down instead of 288 daily services in the North-South corridor which connects Dakshineswar to Kavi Subhash. Out of these 234 services, 160 services were run to and from Dakshineswar. Timings of the first and last services in this line remain unchanged. However, the service timings for East-West Metro which connects Sealdah to Salt Lake Sector V and Purple line which connects Joka to Taratala remain unchanged.
Meanwhile, Metro Railway will run a pair of special Metro services after scheduled commercial hours in North-South Metro Corridor on November 16 for cricket fans to return after the semi-final cricket match of ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 which is going to be played at Eden Gardens.
The Metro services will run between Esplanade-Dakshineswar and Esplanade to Kavi Subhash routes of Blue line. The service will start from Esplanade at 10:45 pm and reach Dakshineswar and Kavi Subhash station at 11:18 pm.
