More Metros At Peak Hours From Today

In what could be called a relief to thousands of commuters, Metro trains leaving the terminal stations between 8:30am and 10:45am and from 5:15pm to 7pm will run at five-minute interval.

Railway minister Suresh Prabhu, who was in the city on Sunday, said: "The additional trains (a reference to the introduction of 14 trips from Monday) will not be enough to solve the problem of crowding but this is the best we can do for now with the existing rakes and manpower.”

Apart from the ‘rush’ hour, the frequency will continue to vary between six and 15 minutes. Earlier, trains leaving the terminal stations between 9am and 10.30am and between 5pm and 6.30pm would run at five-minute intervals on weekdays.

Trinamool MP Saugata Roy, who attended the event as the local MP and a state representative, said increasing the number of trips would not solve the problems commuters had been facing daily. What's needed, he pointed out, is adding more rakes to the Metro fleet. "Increasing the number of trains (trips) can be a part-time solution but it won't help in the long run. You need to increase the number of rakes and then plan to increase the number of trips," Roy said.

Kolkata Metro has 27 rakes - 13 air-conditioned and 14 non-AC ones. Of the 14 non-AC rakes, six are 32 years old - as old as the Metro itself. During rush hours, almost every rake carries 30 per cent more than its capacity of 2,500 passengers. 

With the number of weekday trips set to increase from 274 to 288 from Monday, more trains will run at five-minute intervals in the morning and evening rush hours. The officials aim to run 300 trips by the end of this year.