Suburban train services resumed on Wednesday in Eastern and South Eastern Railways from Sealdah and Howrah after about eight months gap with the stations witnessing massive crowd build up despite the authorities maintained a strict vigil to ensure pandemic protocol.
The train services resumed after repeated protests at various suburban stations by angry commuters who complained of lack of transport facility to reach Kolkata.
Though the EMU (local) trains were not fully crowded as is witnessed during normal situations Railways authorities said expected more passengers in the coming days,
“We ran 696 trains today and will be running about 85 percent of our full running capacity during the office time,” a senior official in the Eastern Railways said even as Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee requested the Railway authorities to increase the number of trains so as to avoid crowing of the compartments.
The Railways after a series of meetings with the State Government resumed local train services on Wednesday with alternate seating arrangements in coaches with every other seat being cross-marked in order to ensure for physical distance among passengers.
This apart spot markings were made outside the ticket counters in order to ensure social distancing, Railway authorities said adding the passengers were being checked with thermal screening and were being given sanitizers before entering the
platform.
Passengers coming from the suburban centres looked happier with the running of the trains even as those coming from Sonarpur in South Sealdah division said how “we had shell out more than Rs 200 per day to visit our offices 50 km away from Baruipur as we had to avail of different modes of transport from buses, to auto rickshaws to share taxis… but once the trains have started we will be able to reach our offices for Rs 50 only.”
Meanwhile in a related development Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday announced that there would be no selection tests for Class X and XII board examinations this year.
The decision will be relevant to the students of West Bengal Secondary and West Bengal Higher Secondary Education Board.
Earlier, the CBSE had postponed the Central Teacher Eligibility Test (CTET) (which will now be held on January 31, 2021) due to the corona pandemic.
The Chief Minister also announced the filling of 16,000 vacant government posts apart from creating three police battalions in the State. The three battalions will be christened Coochbehar--Narayani Sena as per the wishes of the local Rajbonshis population, Gorkha Battalion and Jangal Mahal battalion with 1000 personnel each.