Lakhs of people travel in Kolkata metro's three corridors

Kolkata, Aug 25 (PTI) A total of 4.85 lakh commuters travelled in the three corridors of the Metro Railways Kolkata till 5 pm on Monday, an official spokesperson said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 22 had inaugurated three crucial stretches of Kolkata Metro on Friday, fully connecting the city metro's North-South and East-West corridors, giving lakhs of people from the length and breadth of the city and neighbouring Howrah access to important railway stations, office hubs and the airport.

Commercial services of the newly inaugurated Noapara to Jai Hind Bimanbandar (Airport) of 'Yellow' Line and Kavi Subhash to Beleghata of 'Orange Line' – were opened to passengers on Monday.

While lakhs of commuters boarded trains in the Howrah Maidan-Esplanade-Sealdah stretch of Green Line in the morning, in the evening stations like Sector V-Karunamooyee-Phoolbagan were equally jampacked with passengers.

Similar scenes were witnessed in the Noapara-Jai Hind Biman Bandar corridor, along with the Esplanade-Sealdah stretch of the Green line connecting Howrah with the IT hub and the Kavi Subhas to Beleghata stretch.

"The crowd was obviously much higher in the green line than the two other open stretches, but from today's experience, we can see the response will only get bigger in the coming days," he said.

The 4.85 lakh customer count, combining Green, Blue, Orange and Purple Lines, will obviously come up substantially till the last train leaves after 10 pm, he added.

Previously, only the Blue Line (Dakshineswar-Sahid Khudiram) would carry around 5.6 lakh commuters on a normal working day.

Asked how many commuters could be among the 4.85 lakh, in East-West and Noapara-Biman Bandar corridor, a Metro source said it could be not less than 30-40 per cent.

"We are still in the process of counting numbers. But going by the response of the commuters, the service in the newly inaugurated stretch became a hit and the Green Line would give competition to the Blue Line in terms of the number of commuters taking a ride in a short time," he added. PTI SUS RG