An air-conditioned EMU (electric multiple unit) train ran between Sealdah and Ranaghat for the first time on Sunday. The inaugural run was ceremonial. Commercial runs will start from Monday, said the spokesperson for the Sealdah division of Eastern Railway.
“The train will make two trips every day, during the morning rush and the evening rush. It is scheduled to leave Ranaghat at 8.29am. It will reach Sealdah at 10.10am. In the evening, it will leave Sealdah at 6.50pm to reach Ranaghat at 8.32pm,” said the official.
The train will stop at Bidhannagar Road, Dum Dum Junction, Sodepur, Khardah, Barrackpore, Naihati , Kanchrapara, Kalyani and Chakdah. A one-way fare ranges between ₹35 and ₹120.
“The 12-coach rake, built at the Integral Coach Factory near Chennai, has a seating capacity of more than 1,100. Each coach features four automatic, electrically operated sliding doors on both sides. Each coach is equipped with four CCTV cameras. The two rear coaches are reserved for women. A GPS-enabled passenger information system offers real-time updates,” said the official.
“This is the first time that an AC local train is being operated in eastern India,” said another official. Several BJP leaders — Union ministers of state Sukanta Majumdar and Shantanu Thakur; state BJP chief and Rajya Sabha MP Samik Bhattacharya and Lok Sabha MP Jagannath Sarkar — were present at Sealdah station during the flag-off on Sunday.
The inaugural run was marked by a political tussle. By the time the train reached Dum Dum, a group of Trinamool supporters had already assembled there. Many of them were members of the INTTUC, the trade union of Bengal’s ruling party.
They shouted slogans against the BJP and its alleged bias against Bengali-speaking people, who have allegedly been assaulted in BJP-ruled states for speaking in their mother tongue. As Majumdar got off the train at Dum Dum, the decibel level of the slogans went up.
The BJP supporters with Majumdar also replied, and tempers flared up. At one point, the two sides almost came to blows, and the Railway Protection Force personnel had to intervene.
“These are outsiders. Trinamool and its supporters are scared of the special intensive revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls. These people run an extortion racket in Dum Dum. I will take up this issue with the railway minister,” said Majumdar.
A local Trinamool leader said the protests were “spontaneous as Bengalis are “enraged with the attack on their brothers and sisters in BJPruled states.”