Metro's health check conducted
Kolkata: With Metro services in the city set to resume from September 14, trial runs were conducted to enhance preparedness on Tuesday.
Few rakes were rolled out of the car shed for demo runs along the existing north-south line of Kolkata Metro.
"The trials are being carried at an interval of 10 minutes and go on till 7 pm and will be continued for the second day tomorrow," informed an official.
In a bid to take a note of the preparations, Manoj Joshi, General Manager, Metro Railway carried inspections at various stations.
"Joshi boarded a metro train at around 11.30 am from Park Street station and travelled till Noapara station. He thoroughly checked the arrangement to ensure the Covid-19 protocol could be maintained once services resume," pointed out the official.
As informed by sources, the government will develop a BOT and colour code scanner. The commuters will book slots in advance for travelling in the metro.
The total number of services has been reduced to 110 instead of 288. This apart, the operations hours have been changed to 8 am to 8 pm instead of 6:45 am to 9.55 pm.
While the 12-hours operation duration has been divided into four slots, the first slot will be between 8 am and 9 am (in which a total of ten services will run including both up and down directions at an interval of 12 minutes).
The second slot will start at 9 am and continue till 11.30 am and the frequency of the train will be 10 minutes.
The third slot will be between 11.30 am and 4.30 pm and only 20 pairs of metro services will be given with intervals again going up to 15 minutes. In the fourth shift between 4.30 pm and 8 pm, 15 pairs of trains will be run.
Ensuring proper physical distancing and avoid rush at train gates, the duration of the train stopping at a station has been increased by 10 seconds. Earlier, a rake used to stop for 20 seconds at a station. After the resumption of services, a rake will stop for 30 seconds at metro stations.
The East-West Metro, however, will not start functioning from September 14.
