Broken taps and toilet fittings, stained floors and a stink: it has become difficult to tell between the washrooms at the old Howrah station and the new Howrah Metro station that was unveiled a couple of months ago.
Commuters riding East-West Metro (Green Line) alleged that not only at Howrah station, the washrooms at the Esplanade, Mahakaran and Howrah Maidan stations, too, are in a similar condition.
Commercial services on the Howrah Maidan-Esplanade stretch of East-West Metro started on March 15.
In several washrooms, taps and other toilet fittings are broken and cannot be used.
“At times there is no water in the washroom. Also, there are stains everywhere,” said a daily commuter.
Srijon Roychowdhury, a student of animation and visual effects, has been riding East-West Metro (Howrah Maidan-Esplanade stretch) since the launch.
“On the first day, the washrooms were clean and functioning well. But yellow stains started appearing within a few days. There is also a problem in the flow of water. The conduits in a number of washrooms are clogged,” said Srijon, a resident of Bagnan in Howrah.
He boards an east-west train at Howrah station and gets off at Esplanade, where he switches to the north-south line to go to Girish Park.
East-West Metro trains run between Howrah Maidan and Esplanade, and between Sealdah and Sector V. Work is on between Esplanade and Sealdah.
Metro officials blamed several factors for the dirty washrooms and broken fittings.
“The iron content in the water is very high, often causing the pipelines to get clogged. The iron is also leading to stains in the washrooms,” said a senior official of Metro Railway.
The Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation, the implementing agency of East-West Metro, which once complete will connect Howrah Maidan with Sector V, has built
water treatment plants at the stations. The plants are supposed to remove excess iron from the water.
“However, the treatment plants only supply water to the cooling plants (which
keep the stations air-conditioned),” said a Metro official. “There is no connection yet
to supply treated water to washrooms and for the cleaning of platforms and other facilities.”
This results in clogged taps and pipes, which in turn disrupts supply to washrooms at times, said another official. Once the iron deposits are cleaned, the water supply will be normal, he said.
“Now that commercial services on the stretch have started, we are making arrangements for the supply of treated water to wash-
rooms and for cleaning. The progress of work is slow,” he said.
One official said such high iron content in the water is “unexpected”.
The Howrah Municipal Corporation, Kolkata Municipal Corporation and the railways (for a stretch near Howrah station) supply water to Metro.
Metro sources also cited another problem — not enough cleaning personnel at the stations.
“An agency has been hired to clean the stations. But too few people have been deployed for the job. That is affecting the cleaning and maintenance of washrooms. The staff are also unable to prevent people from damaging the fittings,” said an official.
The Metro authorities said they are expecting the problem to be resolved soon and urged passengers to be more responsible.
Passengers should also behave responsibly, said Metro officials. “There is no explanation for damaging toilet fittings. The sense of belonging is absent among a section of Metro passengers,” said an official.
This newspaper has reported how the authorities were grappling with the problem of gutkha stains on the walls of the newly built stations.
“If someone is damaging the washroom fittings, it is difficult to stop them,” said P. Uday Kumar Reddy, general manager, Metro Railway. “Work to resolve the water treatment issue is in progress. We hope to resolve it soon.”