It took Eastern Railway a year-and-a-half to realise that double discharge platforms, like in Sealdah, are not possible in Howrah due to a space crunch.

The railway, which had de-commissioned passenger traffic movement on platform no. 2 at Howrah, has decided to give the platform back to passengers after re-electrification by the second week of April.

The railway has also decided to extend the platforms to accommodate 12-coach suburban trains and double the train-handling capacity of platform nos. 1, 2 and 3, which are the busiest, by regrouping their route-relay interlocking signal arrangement.

At present, there are 10 coaches in an EMU. The growth in passenger traffic has prompted the railway authorities to augment the capacity of each train by adding two coaches.

The additional coaches will increase the capacity of EMUs by 1,000 passengers.

The first three platforms are presently grouped in one route-relay interlocking system.

Hence, when a train enters or leaves one of these platforms, the movement of trains on the other two platforms remains suspended.

Once platform no. 3 is taken out of the group, simultaneous movement of trains will be possible in platform no. 1 or 2.

The number of platforms in Howrah station was brought down to 14 on September 14, 2003, shortly after the Rs 350-crore overhaul of the route-relay interlocking signal system.

According to railway officials at Howrah, the decommissioning of the platform brought down the passenger-handling capacity of the station by over 80,000 passengers per day.