Lakhs of commuters from Kolkata and its suburbs have ditched road transport to choose a hassle-free, seamless metro ride, leading to huge rush at important stations where authorities grapple to manage the massive flow.
Inauguration of the complete stretch of Kolkata Metro's East-West corridor connecting West Bengal's two busiest railway stations – Howrah and Sealdah -- and IT hub Salt Lake Sector 5, and its connectivity with the North-South corridor at Esplanade has slashed commuting time for many people, who till now had to face massive jams during office hours while travelling on auto-rickshaws and buses.
At the terminal Howrah Maidan railway station on the East-West route, serpentine queues are seen at ticket vending machines, while Metro employees manning the booking counters face a harrowing time, issuing paper tickets and recharging metro cards to the unending line of commuters.
"We witness such a massive rush till late evening hours," a booking clerk manning a ticket counter said.
Howrah Maidan, which is India's deepest metro station at 33 metres below the surface, has escalators, lifts and stairs leading to the turnstile gates and platforms.
"Now, we scan around 4,500-5,000 backpacks every day at the metal detectors. The number was around 1,500-2,000 when only the Howrah Maidan-Esplanade section was operational," a guard manning the entry point at the turnstile told PTI.
Commuters, despite the rush, are glad that the metro corridor has opened, enabling them to travel to most parts of Kolkata much quicker than by road.
"Gone are the days of inordinate delays on buses or being at the mercy of drivers. It used to take no less than an hour-and-a-half to reach Sealdah from Howrah Maidan on slow-moving buses. Sometimes, I remained stuck in traffic for hours and missed important events, for which I was hauled up by my office," Anjan Patra, a middle-aged private firm employee who was waiting at the platform, told PTI.
As a train arrived and doors opened, a mad scramble ensued as thousands trooped into the compartments.
Among the commuters were office-goers bound for Mahakaran, Esplanade, Sealdah and Salt Lake Sector 5 stations, besides students of Calcutta University, colleges adjacent to Sealdah and educational institutions in Salt Lake.
Ankita Tripathi, who works at a restaurant in BBD Bagh area in central Kolkata, said, "I used to travel by bus from Howrah Maidan, and it used to take around an hour to reach my workplace on Old Court House Street. Now, I reach there in 10 minutes. Yes, there is rush in the metro, but the ride saves a lot of time." A group of young men and women, who were on the way to a Left student organisation's rally at College Square, discussed animatedly how the metro has massively reduced their travel time from Howrah station to College Street.
Sujoy Basu, who took a train for Karunamoyee station in Salt Lake, said that bus rides took long hours and app two-wheeler rides were both risky and burnt a hole in his pocket.
"Not anymore!" he exclaimed.
Arup Dasgupta, who boarded the train at Sealdah station to reach his office in Salt Lake, said he was happy that doors were opening on both sides of the compartment at important interchanging stations such as Howrah, Esplanade and Sealdah to ease the ingress and egress of commuters.
Srinjoy Chanda, a student of a college at Sector 5, however, missed the earlier days when he could easily get a seat at Sealdah station after reaching there on a local train from his home in Agarpara.
"However, nowadays, the metro trains come packed from Howrah, and we struggle to get inside the coaches at Sealdah, and sometimes miss trains during peak hours," he said.
Before the entire Howrah Maidan-Sector 5 stretch was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 22, truncated services were run along two disjointed sections – Howrah Maidan to Esplanade and Sealdah to Sector 5 – as work was delayed along the Esplanade-Sealdah stretch due to the bursting of an aquifer and sinking of ground during tunnelling in the Bow Bazaar area.
Kolkata Metro is, meanwhile, urging commuters to buy tickets from 'Aamar Kolkata Metro' app, or use smart cards or vending machines to reduce pressure on counters.
The metro is also offering a five per cent discount on fares if tickets are bought through the app.
"Most of us have smartphones, so we are encouraging commuters to make the switch," a metro official said.
"We have noticed an overwhelming response from commuters at major stations such as Howrah, Sealdah, Salt Lake Sector 5, Dum Dum and Esplanade in the last 10 days," he said.
The official said 1.43 lakh commuters used the Green Line (East-West corridor) till 6 pm on Monday.
At present, there are a total 5,28,000 active users in android and 88,000 active users in iOS platform using the metro app. The rate of downloading the app has picked up, he said.
He said massive rush is witnessed in Howrah and Sealdah stations, where people arriving in the city from other neighbouring districts of south Bengal board the metro, and in Esplanade, where the East-West corridor meets the North-South line.
Another metro official said that on average, around 1.4 lakh commuters have been travelling daily on the East-West corridor on weekdays since its opening on August 22. This is in contrast to 60,000-70,000 commuters travelling along the Howrah Maidan-Esplanade stretch, and 40,000 along the Sealdah-Sector 5 stretch every day when truncated services were run.