In the last few weeks, West Bengal recorded a heavy drop in deaths and infections, after which the Ministry of Railways & Govt. of West Bengal decided to resume the services of suburban locals in Kolkata and all it’s adjoining districts, after seven months of nationwide lockdown. From the morning hours, this suburban services eyewitnessed a peak crowd among some railway stations, like Howrah (HWH), Sealdah (SDAH) & Kharagpur (KGP).
As per the sources, Eastern Railway Zone has decided to resume the services in a gradient increment manner, under which they decided to operate major service during morning and evening peak hours & minor services in afternoon non-peak hours. The zonal railway has decided to operate 413 trains in the Sealdah rail division & 202 trains in the Howrah rail division, of the eastern railway zone. 81 train services will start in the Kharagpur rail divisions, of the south-eastern railway zone. All these making total of 696 train services.
At certain rail stations, massive crowding could be witnessed outside the ticket counters, but still, passengers expressed happiness over the resumption of local suburban rail services, in West Bengal. Eastern rail officials stated that hey will operate 86% of the rail services, during peak times. The Eastern and South-Eastern officials asked the passengers to conform to COVID-19 safety protocols and made mandatory for all passengers to follow the travel advisories and norms of social distancing & use of marks and hand sanitizers, for travel or entering station premises.
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