Eastern Railway?s Chitpur terminal, planned to take the growing load off Howrah and Sealdah stations and originally scheduled to be commissioned by the Puja, will not be ready before December, railway officials declared on Wednesday.

?As we see it, the terminal will be ready for operation only around December,? said Shyam Kumar, general manager of Eastern Railway (ER). He had promised that the terminal would be unveiled before the start of the autumn festivities.

?We are extending the deadline because the contractor has let us down,? he added.

Five pairs of trains will initially operate from two platforms of the terminal. ?Our aim is to run 25 pairs of trains from five platforms by the end of 2006,? Kumar stated.

Elaborating on the delay in the commissioning of the terminal, a senior ER official said there were pending court cases over the plot on which the station is being built. The eviction of the plot-holders had apparently delayed the project earlier.

The contractor giving finishing touches to the terminal did not complete its work on time, the official added, resulting in the Puja deadline not being met.

The terminal will cost railways around Rs 25 crore.

The railway will operate trains from the Chitpur terminal primarily to reduce the burden on Howrah and Sealdah, said another official of the railways. He described the older terminals ?super-saturated in terms of trains and number of platforms?.

?The ever-increasing pressure forced us to think of two new platforms each at Howrah and Sealdah stations. But only increasing the number of platforms won?t do; other factors, like conveyance and road connectivity, will have to be taken into account. A new terminal at a convenient location has become an absolute necessity,? the official asserted.

According to him, the new terminal is being built at Chitpur keeping in mind the townships at Salt Lake and New Town, Rajarhat. ?Residents of these areas will find it easier to reach Chitpur than Howrah,? the ER official observed.

?If some of the ER trains can be run from Chitpur, we will be able to ply more trains from Howrah,? said R.R. Bhandari, general manager, South Eastern Railway (SER), which operates from the new complex of the station.

SER is also reeling under pressure of passengers and desperately needs to run more trains, a senior official of the railway said.

?Our Shalimar terminal has been a non-starter. People are avoiding it due to bad road connectivity and lack of conveyance. So, we are still depending heavily on the Howrah station,? he explained.

Kumar, along with Bhandari, on Wednesday inaugurated the construction of a new platform at Howrah. He also released the logo for the centenary celebration of Howrah station (old complex), which was built in December 1905.

?This is a great moment for Indian Railways. We will organise a series of cultural and awareness programmes to inform people about our rich heritage and history,? Kumar said at the inauguration.