KOLKATA: The railway authorities have promised to take action after a social media user on Monday tweeted to them the photograph of a packed local train compartment, in which people stood shoulder to shoulder. This was a special staff train that was being used by others as well. It now remains to be seen whether this scene will be repeated on Wednesday when services resume for common people.
From Wednesday, Eastern Railway (ER) and South Eastern Railway (SER) will start running 696 suburban services in the Howrah, Sealdah and Kharagpur divisions. Apart from sanitization of rakes, passengers will be forbidden to use the middle seats. Each row has three seats and a red cross has been painted on the middle to prevent passengers from using it. At the end of the coaches, where seats are more, alternate ones have been marked with a cross. Queue markers have also been put in place in front of the ticket counters.
“This is as per guidelines being followed across the country. Even Metro Railway commuters are keeping a gap between two seats to maintain social distancing. We know that it will be a tough task to maintain discipline on the local trains but we can only appeal to people. There will be regular announcements at stations and posters have also been put up, urging people to maintain social distancing norms and wear masks,” a senior railway official in Kolkata said.
Before the pandemic, four people used to squeeze into the three seats in each row. Asking people to occupy only two of the seats now may cause some problems when more people start using the services. According to the official, sufficient services are being offered to start with and there shouldn’t be any problem if people follow the guidelines. If need be, more services can be started.
“I am keeping my fingers crossed. Hopefully, everybody will abide by the rules. There will be some troublemakers, but they should have little say against a majority opinion. Before the pandemic, there was a tendency among people to crowd the first 3-4 coaches of the train so that they would have to walk a shorter distance on reaching Howrah or Sealdah. Hopefully, this tendency will make way for social distancing,” Ardhendu Roy, a commuter, said.
As many companies are continuing to encourage work from home and schools and colleges are yet to start, the railways believe that the number of services will suffice for the time being.